The Coming of the Kaiju
by NightWolf214
Summary: Godzilla was enslaved and made human and immortal by the Shobijin hundreds of centuries ago. Now, can Naruto's friendship change the evil Monster King? Or will the forces of Akatsuki and King Ghidorah end them all? Will Godzilla be a menace or a savior?
1. Ch1 Prologue

"**The Coming of the Kaiju****" **(Redone)

Sorry it took so long and sorry I couldn't get this up on time, Fan Fic wouldn't let me log in … well anyway, here ya go.

One thing before we start. I will now be typing the jutsu in Japanese. Over my "_little_" break I read all of the Naruto-Manga on OneManga (dot) com and I have learned to use the original Jap-names for jutsu; so that's what I'll be doing from now on.

Note: This is the only KEY that I will be putting up … Okay.

_Outside perspective _(only in prologue) 

**(Bold numbers are author's notes to be read at the bottom of the chapter) **

"Talking"

"_Thinking_"

"Jutsu"

"**Bijuu/Kaiju/Jinchuuriki in Demon Mode/Large Summoning Animals - Talking"**

"_**Bijuu/Kaiju/Jinchuuriki in Demon Mod/Large Summoning Animals - Thinking**_**"**

"_**Bijuu/Kaiju - Mentally Communicating**__**"**_

"_Shobijin – Mentally Communicating__"_

"**Inner-Sakura****"**

**Disclaimer****: ** I don't own Shit.

Chapter 1: Prologue 

_It was cold that night; anybody could see that, including the woman watching the events of this evening unfold before her eyes … she had seen __**this**__ routine before._

_Warning sirens pierced through the night air as great beasts of iron rumbled through the streets of the colossal city which dwarfed even the greatest of the towns and villages that she had back home. _

_The city was lined with buildings so massive that they were called __**skyscrapers**__ by their creators, and rightfully so. The streets were different from the compacted dirt roads of her home village; instead these streets were made of concrete and asphalt. _

_She watched as the monsters of iron rumbled past her in line, armed soldiers jogging in pace with them. By now she had seen these things so many times that she had learned each of their names and what they were capable of. _

_Some were called __**jeeps**__ or __**cars**__ (she forgot which was which); other, larger and stronger ones were massive things called __**tanks**__ and were made of solid iron and some of the tanks were even fitted with a crown of glass and were called __**M.A.Z.E.R. Assault Units**__ or just __**"M.A.U.'s"**__ for short. And others still (a sonic boom cracked in the sky high above her head) well, others flew through the air with incredible speed and were called __**jets**__ or __**helicopters**__ (sometimes just __**choppers**__) depending on whether they had rotating blades on top of them or not. _

_Yes, by now she had learned a great amount about these people and their strange weapons. She had also learned that she was currently in a city called Tokyo in a country called Japan which shared very similar customs and an almost identical language to her's with an accent being the only difference in the way they spoke. She had learned of how much more powerful their weapons and technologies were than those of her own people. She had learned of the strength of their people and their will of iron. _

_However, the most important thing that she had learned was simply this … she had learned of their fears. _

_The one thing which this mighty nation feared (aside from other nations which they had previously waged war against) was a class of monsters, or perhaps they were demons, which surpassed her wildest and most horrifying nightmares. They had been given a title, whose very name seemed to reek of power._

_They were known as … Kaiju. _

_She had been forced to watch in mute horror as these abominations of nature decimated this city and others like it. The rampages of these creatures always brought death and destruction to the people of this land on a scale she had not seen since the Fox-God, the mighty and powerful Demon King who's true name had been lost to the sands of time but was known to the mere mortals of the plain of the living as the Kyuubi no Yoko, had attacked and nearly destroyed her home village and killed her predecessor the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze. _

_The Kyuubi had not only been the most powerful of the Bijuu, holding the title of Nine-Tails, but he had also been the most powerful demon in existence, thus granting him the title of the King of the Demons._

_But now she could see that the Bijuu of her world had found their equals in the beasts known as the Kaiju. She had heard rumors of the other eight Bijuu such as the psychotic One-Tailed Tankuni, Shukaku and the raging Eight-Tailed Ushi-oni, Yamato; however, she had actually __**seen**__ the Kaiju. _

_Their names had been lost in the screams of the fleeing hordes, but one thing had become perfectly clear to her … these Kaiju, as they were called, were without a doubt the Ancient Beasts foretold by her ancestors. The Ancient Beasts of the Senju Clan's Legend. _

_Though she herself did not hold her ancestors name, she was, by ties of blood and law, their descendent and as such, the Senju Legend had been passed on to her through way of stories told by word of mouth, never to be written down, with the exception of the secret ancient cave that was once the meeting place of her clan. That was the place where she had been forced to memorize, in extreme detail, the physical characteristics of what the beasts were said to look like along with the Legend itself. The Legend's original words had been long since lost to the sands of time, but the main focus of the story survived. It was a warning, to all those who heeded the words of the Senju, it was a warning of the end of world. _

_It was a warning, of Armageddon. _

_Through her time watching the people of this world, she had been able to watch as each of the Ancient Beasts had destroyed the lives of the people of this land. She had seen them all; the Three Headed Dragon of Thunder, the Cyclops of Venom, the Serpent of Ice, the Burrower of Lava, the Black Moth of Darkness, the White Moth of Light, the Armadillo of Earth, the Pterosaur of Air, and the Lizard of Water. And yet, even after seeing the chaos caused by each of their attacks on humanity, one monster still eluded her. _

_The Dark Destroyer of Fire, rumored to be the most powerful of all the Ancient Beasts, had yet to reveal himself to her. However, she felt that the time of judgment for the people of this world was soon at hand and that the mightiest of the Kaiju would soon be making his appearance. Tonight, she thought, __**He**__ would be paying a visit to the city known as Tokyo._

_She had followed the massive horde of soldiers and tanks throughout the city and they had now reached the docks of the city's harbor. _

_The troops were now lined up along the water's edge with their strange weapons aimed out to sea as they stretched along the dock in either direction as far as she could see. The tanks and the MAU's took up positions behind the soldiers and took up aim with the troops and positioned their cannons out to sea as many rows of jeeps screeched to a halt behind the tank line with more armed soldiers pouring out of them onto the docks. _

Spotlights broke through the darkness and illuminated the cold black waters of the bay revealing the massive hulls of nine-hundred foot long iron warships silently slicing through the dark waters as they patrolled along the water's edge no more than six-hundred yards from shore. Even more ships were docked along the harbor, ready to set sail at a moment's notice. Helicopters hovered just above the city's skyline and jets crisscrossed the sky just under the thick cloudbank which swirled above the streets of Tokyo.

Ominous thunder cracked in the heavens above.

"So whose ships are those?" Said a soldier as he exited a newly arrived jeep.

_She turned to see two men, both perhaps nineteen or twenty at the most, exiting a freshly arrived jeep with their weapons in hand_.

"I thought our whole navy had been completely annihilated during King Ghidorah's attack last month." The man continued.

_She followed them silently, unnoticed by their unseeing eyes. She might as well have not been there at all._

"Araki, you baka." The soldier next to him said in an exasperated tone, "Weren't you listening to what the General said back at base? Those are some older model Iowa-Class Battleships that were sent over to us from the States."

"But Shinsaku," Araki said as he scratched the back of his head, "I thought there were only six Iowa-Class battle ships in the US navy and I can easily count three dozen ships out there, and besides why the hell would they do that?"

"Okay, in order; One, I'm surprised that you can even count that high. Two, there were only six _in active service_, there were another three and a half dozen smaller prototype ships that were never used, and that's what we got out there. And Three … the hell if I know." Shinsaku said with a shrug, "I heard somewhere that the Prime Minister sent some bargaining pleas out to some other foreign countries to aid us with the recent Kaiju attacks."

"Really?" Araki said in amazement.

"Yeah," Shinsaku said with a nod, "But from what I've heard Russia, France, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, and an ass load of others told him to go blow himself. It would seem that only Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Italy, and Australia sent us any help at all."

"So I guess we owe those guys one." Araki said more to himself than anything. "So, what did we ge-"

"YOU TWO!" Another soldier, an apparent superior of theirs, shouted. "SHUT YOUR TRAPS AND GET BACK TO YOUR –!"

An explosion of titanic proportions sent a shockwave of superheated air blasting across the soldiers. The blast sent Araki, Shinsaku, their superior, and another three soldiers flying several yards back across the battle lines. They landed heavily almost twenty yards behind where they had been dropped off in their jeep; they were all unconscious and beaten up, but at least they were alive … the same could not be said for many of their fellow soldiers.

All of the soldiers in the immediate area of the blast had instantaneously been incinerated.

The explosion came from the harbor as one of the mighty ships of iron, which had only seconds before been positioned along the dock, had been reduced to a smoldering pile of scrap, slowly sinking into the dark waters of the harbor.

Just behind where the ship had been destroyed was what had once been a mighty skyscraper of glass. Now, in the center of the structure there was a massive gaping hole, the edges of which still singed with red hot embers. Then, with the structural integrity of the building compromised beyond all hope, the massive structure collapsed in on itself, crashing to the earth with a thunderous boom.

The surviving soldiers did not have time to mourn the losses they had just sustained by the seemingly effortless destruction as they quickly filled in ranks to protect the hole that had just been torn through their defenses.

"Keep it together men!" the Commanding Officer shouted. He then said to himself in a more hushed tone, "I'd recognize that ungodly power anywhere, it's _**Him**_ alright."

Just as quickly as the Commander had given his command, another massive explosion rocked the harbor. That explosion was quickly followed by another and another. The armed soldiers could only watch in mute horror as each and every single one of the ships patrolling the harbor was engulfed by a bright flash of blue light before sinking below the water, completely engulfed in flame.

_She doubted that there would be any survivors on those ships._

One final explosion sent shockwaves across the harbor as the last of the patrolling ships of iron was annihilated. Then, as if moved by some great unseen force, the water of the harbor swelled and bulged up. Then the massive bulge of water moved forward like a great tsunami towards shore as its center split open to reveal three rows of bone-colored plates which were shaped somewhat like maple leaves. The troops tensed as the bulge shot up and spiraled vertically into a towering column of water before exploding in a shower of freezing ocean spray.

A mighty roar cracked the heavens above as a truly titanic form towered over the humans below. Each and every single person in the city knew that roar … it was _**him**_.

The creature's massive four hundred foot tall form was cloaked in the shadows of the night, only the crisscross pattern of the half dozen spotlights gave the ominous silhouette any defining features. The spotlights swept over the massive figure, illuminating bits and pieces of the Kaiju's form. A four fingered hand, a thick powerful tail, the dorsal plates which ran down the creature's back, massive jaws lined with countless jagged fangs … those blazing orange eyes.

_This was it, she knew now that there was no denying it … the Dark Destroyer of Fire had come. She knew it the moment she met the gaze of those eyes. Eyes whose very core reeked of power, danced with the burning rage of a firestorm, yet were tempered by the cold malice of a tsunami. _

_This was __**him**__, the one whose powers were said to rival even that of the Kyuubi's; this was the one who had earned the title __**King of the Monsters**__. _

The great beast roared its challenge to the tiny creatures that dared stand in its path. Then, as if on cue … there came an answer.

"OPEN FIRE!!" The Commander shouted with all his might.

The heavens split with the massive boom of the army's attack. The men fired their guns on full auto, the tanks blasted their shell's down range, the M.A.U.'s unleashed their beams of burning hot white lightning, the jets dropped their full payloads of five hundred pound bombs, the helicopters unleashed a barrage of their sidewinder missiles, and the remaining ships parked along the docks unleashed the ultimate power of their sixteen inch guns in a full broadside assault.

All of the attacks struck the beast at once.

Streams of burning napalm sent jets of fire racing across the creature's pebbly gray skin, white lightning seared its thick muscular chest, the bombs exploded on its back with bone shattering concussive force, and the sidewinders and cannon shells blasted the creature's torso and face enveloping it in an enormous ball of fire before a thick black blanket of smoke enveloped the Kaiju's form until it was nothing more than a silhouette in the darkness once again.

"Hold your fire!" The Commander ordered. When his troops failed to comply he tried again more forcefully, "HOLD YOUR FUCKING FIRE DAMN IT!"

This time the men followed orders. The soldiers lowered their weapons and the guns ceased firing as all stared into the thick cloud of smoke.

_She had never seen their armies show such raw force and brutality against any of the previous attackers; she knew that there was no way that the creature had survived such a vicious onslaught. _

But then, just at that moment, as if to prove her thoughts wrong, a deep monstrous growl broke the silence as a bright blue light pierced the darkness. The blue glow took on the shape of the maple-leaf shaped plates which ran down the creature's back.

The Commanding Officer's eyes went wide as recognition dawned on him too little too late.

"FALL BACK!" He shouted desperately, "IT'S NOT DEAD! ALL TROOPS FALL THE FUCK BACK!!"

His desperate cry came far, far too late.

All at once a concentrated beam of blue fire erupted from the smoke cloud and obliterated the remaining ships in the harbor in a great ball of fire. The burning corpses of hundreds of young soldiers flew through the air and littered the ground and surrounding waters, the Commander was among them.

The tanks and the MAU's tried to retreat along with the remaining troops, however before they could even reach the first line of buildings the gaping maw of the creature pierced through the cloud of smoke, its throat glowing with a wicked spiraling blue energy.

There was not even time for the men to scream before a lance of blue fire shot forth and incinerated almost all of the survivors.

The enduring helicopters and jets fired their remaining armaments in a desperate attempt to fight back. The weapons only succeeded in irritating the mighty leviathan. It charged its beam weapon once again before it swept its weapon along the dock and city skyline destroying the last of the fighting aircraft.

Buildings crumbled and fires raged as the burning wreckage of the jets and helicopters tumbled back to earth. The docks were a scene of utter destruction; skyscrapers had become nothing more than burning rubble on the streets, the hollow burning remains of the machines of war lay scattered across the battlefield, and over fifty thousand burning corpses littered the ground as the putrid stench of death crept its way across the whole of Tokyo.

There were no survivors, with the exception of six fortunate souls who had been knocked out at the beginning of the battle.

_Her throat clamped shut as it tried to resist the bile creeping up to her mouth. Her eyes were wide and damp with tears at the utter destruction and loss of life that this abomination, this rape of nature had caused in the blink of an eye. For all of the power these people possessed, for all of their technologies and courage … she was at a loss for words. It was all for nothing._

_Six had survived._

_Six. _

_Out of fifty thousand young, brave men. _

_Six. _

_That was all._

_She had been wrong before. This creature was no rival to the Kyuubi, this creature was __**worse**__ than the Kyuubi._

_She was abruptly snapped from her trance as the earth shook beneath her. She spun around to see a horrifying sight, the beast hauling its second four toed foot onto dry land. The earth shook beneath its massive weight again._

_The abomination towered over her as it drew itself up to its full height. The monster before her was absolutely gigantic! It dwarfed her in every way possible; she must have been like an ant to the beast. Even her largest summon could only be two thirds the size of the Kaiju before her. The creature must have been at least one hundred and twenty two meters tall! _

_Then the Dark Destroyer of Fire unleashed a mighty roar which boomed across the city and cracked the eternal heavens above, announcing its victory over the human army and making its presence known to the whole of Tokyo._

_Just at that moment, the world seemed to … ripple, would be the word, around her, almost like a pebble being dropped into a pond. The ripples circulated out from the center of her vision until the entire world had changed around her. _

_She was now standing on the side of a road in the heart of the city. A crowd of people was moving before her off to her right, some jogging, some running, all moving to evacuate the city, to get away from the invading monster. _

_Two tanks with soldiers on their tops were stationed at the four way intersection a few yards off to her right. The people moved swiftly between them as the soldiers ushered them on. _

_All at once the earth shook beneath her with a large thumping sound as if in an earthquake. Cars parked along the side of the road bounced and set off their alarms. The earth shook again, and again as the people began to panic. Every time the earth shook, more car alarms rang up until the noise was deafening. The earth shook once again, this time accompanied by a ferocious growl. _

_She spun quickly to her left in time to see the Dark Destroyer turning the corner down the road. The beast roared at the insignificant insects in its path and slammed its fist into a building to its right, shattering the glass windows on the structure. The people screamed as the crowd erupted into utter mayhem. Forgetting any belongings they might have been holding the people did the only thing they could do, they ran for their lives. _

The tanks brought their guns around and opened fire. The shell exploded against the creature's chest as it marched down the road, crushing those unfortunate enough to still be in its path. The monster snarled at the tanks as they aimed their guns higher, the shells were now striking it in the face and neck. One shot found its mark close to the creature's eye causing it to let out a roar, not of pain, but of irritation.

With ungodly strength the beast slammed its right fist into another, larger building next to it. This time, the force of the monster's fist was so great that it caused the entire building to split in half at the point of impact. The top half of the structure fell towards the great leviathan and, as the lower half of the building crumbled, the creature caught the top half in one swift motion and raised it above its head.

The people screamed in terror as the mighty beast roared its rage and threw the building's top half down the street. The building acted like a tsunami made of concrete, steel and glass as it swept down the whole of the street, killing the fleeing people in their thousands and crushing the tanks beyond recognition.

The Kaiju continued its march through the city, killing all in its path and crushing all opposition it encountered beneath its feet or with a single swipe of its thick powerful tail. The city was now an inferno of rubble and ash. The flames from the many fires started by the creature had merged together and become self sustaining, a firestorm was born. The central column of the firestorm mushroomed into the air. Hurricane force winds were sucked into the heart of the inferno, feeding the flames further. Fire Whirls spun off from the center of the fire column, acting like one hundred foot tall tornadoes of fire, burning whatever they came in contact with. Anyone who was not already outside of the center of the city had no hope for survival as the flames cremated them down to the bone.

Tokyo had become hell on earth. And standing in the center of the massive fire column, was the cause of all of the destruction. The beast's massive form was perfectly silhouetted against the tornados of fire. It roared its satisfaction at the hell it had created.

_It seemed to her that the Dark Destroyer of Fire had beyond any doubt lived up to its name's sake. The King of the Monsters had shown itself to be truly indestructible. _

But just then, something strange happened.

The air grew still and all noise ceased. Without the constant flow of air to the central column the firestorm died down a bit, still burning strong, but no longer could the central column sustain itself. The column collapsed in on itself and the fires of Tokyo began to smolder out.

The beast stopped its rampage and grew still. It narrowed its eyes; it seemed to know that something was wrong. A low warning growl began to leak from its throat as its burning orange eyes scanned the sky.

All at once the air pulsed and rippled as a dark sphere shot out of the sky and descended towards the monster. The smoldering debris, flames and smoke from the firestorm all spiraled upwards into the rapidly descending sphere and vanished within its dark core.

The beast lowered itself as it felt the dark sphere's pull begin to shift its massive weight. It growled in anger as it charged it heat ray again; fiery determination burning in its eyes. The dorsal spines along the beast's back glowed neon blue once more before it swung its head upwards and unleashed its power against the all consuming black sphere.

The two mighty forces collided with a massive pulse of concussive energy which blasted across the whole of Tokyo, causing still burning skyscrapers to topple over and low lying structures to be reduced to rubble in an instant.

The two forces struggled against one another for a moment before a massive explosion ripped out from the point of contact. The beast ceased its attack and closed its eyes against the bright flash and heat wave created by the explosion.

Once the flash died down, the beast looked to the sky once more to see a mushroom cloud of smoke where the attacks had met. The great Kaiju was just about to let loose a roar of victory when all of a sudden the dark sphere erupted from the center of the smoke cloud and headed straight towards the monster.

Then the Dark Destroyer of Fire did the only thing it had time to do; it unleashed one final roar of defiance as the dark sphere struck the beast in the chest, then all was dark.

_Darkness … that was all she could see now. _

_She felt herself floating weightlessly within deep, cold, never-ending darkness. It was so dark that she couldn't even see the bridge of her own nose, let alone her own hand before her face. But what was almost worse than the darkness, was the complete and total silence._

_But wait, no, the silence wasn't absolute; when she really listened she could make out one distinct noise. It sounded to her like a deep, low beating of some kind. How odd, to her it sounded almost like a … _

_**Thu-Thump. Thu-Thump. Thu-Thump. **_

_A heartbeat? _

_Her eyes widened in immediate terror. She whirled around in the darkness and she was immediately struck with a terror so deep that her mind and body grew instantly numb. Through the darkness, glaring straight at her, were the eyes of the beast. Two giant magma orange orbs, bloodshot, angry, and glaring at her with untold malice. _

_No, wait. Not __**at**__ her, but almost … through her. As if she was an insignificant spec, completely beneath __**his**__ notice; as if she was neither worthy of his time or even his acknowledgment of her existence. _

_And then something happened which terrified her more than anything she had ever experienced before in her life. It scared her more than facing down her former teammate gone nukenin, it scared her more than when her precious little brother had been killed, it even scared her more than when her beloved-one had died in her arms._

_The Great and Powerful Dark Destroyer of Fire … spoke._

"_**Shobijin**__**."**_The beast spoke in a deep powerful voice.

_As the creature's hot breath rolled over her, she became spellbound as the sound of its deep tones reverberated through the darkness. _

"_**Moll, Lora … I know you can hear me … come to me.**__**" **_The beast continued_. __**"**__**Show me your light in this place of darkness.**__**"**___

_His words were drawn out slowly and caressed with the careful attention of a being that saw communication as an art form to be practiced so that every intricate detail would become perfectly clear. _

_For a moment nothing happened, but then a small light began to shine from behind her. She turned herself away from the Dark Destroyer to see what looked like a tiny star shining in the distance. Slowly its light grew until it shown right before her … and then it took form. _

_The light pulsed and shown so bright that she was forced to shield her eyes. When she was once again able to see, she was met with one of the strangest things she had ever laid her eyes on; it wasn't scary, just … ever so odd._

_Before her was the biggest damn moth she had ever seen in her life. It was about a foot long with beautiful red, gold and white wings and bright glowing green eyes. Had the situation been different, she might have called the thing "cute". But the large insect was not what really caught her attention, it was the two tiny women, each no more than six inches tall, standing side by side on the moth's back which really caught her eye._

_The two girls looked identical to each other; they both had their long black hair pulled up into ponytails with medium length bangs, they both wore little dresses that ended just under their knees with a single shoulder strap which went over the opposite shoulder from their twin. They looked exactly the same and, in fact, the only difference that she could see between the two was that the one on the right was wearing a sky-blue dress and the one on the left was wearing a deep orange dress._

"_My, my__." _The twin girls giggled in perfect unison_. "__You've gotten yourself into quite a pinch this time, haven't you__?" _

_Her eyes widened in shock. Their lips hadn't moved once!_

"_**How astute of the both of you to have noticed that miniscule detail**__**." **_The beast growled back with an unquestionable edge in its voice.

_She hazarded a glance back at the monster behind her._

"_**Explain to me what happened back there, right now**__**." **_It growled at them. It was an order, not a request.

_Her eyes widened even further. With the new light produced by the twin fairies, she could now clearly make out the large fanged muzzle of the monster behind her. To her surprise __**His**__ lips, or rather snout, hadn't moved either. She couldn't help but wonder if they were in some way communicating mentally and she was somehow listening in on it. _

"_It would seem that the humans have developed a new weapon of some sort that even you could not overcome__."_ Came the twins' reply.

"_**Your unchallenged gasp of the obvious never ceases to amaze me girls! I HAD ALREADY GATHERED THAT MUCH YOU BLEEDING IMBECILES**__**!"**_ The beast roared back, anger saturating its tone. _**"**__**Get to the point**__**!"**_

"_As we were about to say__." _ The Shobijin replied forcefully. _"__It would seem to be a man-made black hole fired at you from a satellite in orbit around the planet. Based on what we gathered from reading the human leader's thoughts, they call it Dimension Tide. It's quite an impressive feet for humans, if we do say so ourselves. It appears that you are caught within a wormhole, burned into the fabric of space and time, trapping you here for the rest of your life__." _

"_**Damn those insignificant worthless apes**__**!" **_ The monster roared out in anger. _**"**__**Every time I knock them down, they somehow get right back up! Oh well, just one more of their toys for me to destroy once you two get me out of this prison**__**."**_

"_That's what you think__." _The Shobijin said in a rather cold tone.

"_**Excuse me**__**?" **_The beast growled at the tiny twins, malice absolutely dripping from his every word. _**"**__**Would you mind repeating that one more time**__**?"**_

The charming and peaceful air that the two fairies had previously held about themselves had all but vanished with their last statement. Their faces were no longer warm and inviting, instead they were now perfict masks somber coolness.

"_Did you truly believe that we would simply set you free after you caused such damage to the earth__?"_ The Shobijin said coolly as they crossed their arms before their chests.

The eyes of the great Kaiju dilated in utter rage towards the two girls. The monster king snarled in deeply before unleashing the mightiest roar he could muster sending a gust of superheated air blasting across the two twin fairies and their moth. The Shobijin and their companion Fairy defiantly remained perfectly in place.

"_**DAMAGE TO THE EARTH**__**?!" **_The monster bellowed. _**"**__**Unacceptable! You powerless, weak, impotent little whelps! You claim that I damage the earth and I am to be imprisoned here BUT at the same time, those who DARED to bring harm to my heir get of free as a bird in your book! Don't they**__**!?"**_

"_What the humans did was wrong in trying to eliminate any potential threat your son may cause for them in the future. We understand that__." _The Shobijin said calmly_. "__But you have gone too far this time. We can no longer ignore what you have done__."_

"_**TOO FAR**__**!?" **_The monster king roared again. _**"**__**An attack upon my heir is an attack upon myself! I will NEVER tolerate such violence towards the young one! He nearly died from his wounds! I would never allow the pain they caused him to go unpunished**__**!"**_

"_YOU KILLED OVER FIVE MILLION HUMANS DAMN YOU__!"_ The Shobijin shouted out. They had had more than enough of this. _"__AND YOU ABSORBED THEIR DAMN SOULS TO MAKE YOURSELF STRONGER DIDN'T YOU__!?" _**(1)**

The beast recoiled slightly at this. Never before had he seen the twin fairies so angry.

"_**SO WHAT IF I DID**__**!?" **_He roared back. _**"**__**FIVE MILLION DOWN, FIVE BILLION NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE MILLION HUMANS LEFT TO GO!! AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED THE ONLY GOOD HUMAN IS A DEAD HU…**__**"**_

"_ENOUGH__!!" _The Shobijin bellowed.

The monster king silenced himself immediately after the twins' outburst.

"_We have had absolutely enough of you__!" _The Shobijin said as they each pointed an accusing finger at the beast before them.___"__We have tolerated you for long enough! Even your closest allies agree that you must be punished for what you have done here tonight__!"_

"_**THOSE MAGGOTS**__**!!" **_The great Kaiju roared. _**"**__**I WILL BURN THEM ALL TO ASHES FOR THIS BETRAYAL**__**!!" **_

"_No you will not monster__." _The twins hissed in a foul tone. _"__You will never be given the chance to do that! In fact, we believe that you will have an even greater punishment than remaining in this place alone__!"_

"_**You can do NOTHING to me you insignificant little whores**__**!" **_He hissed at the twins, daring them to do their worst.

"_Currently__," _The Shobijin said, _"__You contain the souls of over nine hundred million people. The accumulated souls of every human to die in World War II along with the souls of every human ever killed by a Kaiju in the last fifty years. And for every soul that you take into yourself and prevent from moving on to the afterlife, you absorb the power of their life force and grow stronger … exponentially__." _**(2)**

The monster king merely growled at the twins.

"_Your punishment__,"_ The Shobijin continued, _"__Shall be to live for one human life span __**as**__ a human for every single soul that you have absorbed until you have no more souls left to feed upon and you lose all of your power. You will live forever this way, and only in the heat of battle, when faced with an opponent of equal or greater strength, will you be rendered mortal. We will also force you to fight in every single human conflict and war that has ever happened on the face of the earth. We will also send you to places where your power is needed, so that you may help the people of that land … whether you like it or not. And on top of all of that we will put a restrictor seal on you so that you can never absorb another innocent soul. You will be tormented for the rest of time this way. This is your ultimate punishment__."_

The expression on the inhuman face of the Kaiju was initially on of utter shock, but then slowly, like a crack opening in the earth's crust, a sick twisted smile cracked its way across the Kaiju's face before the great beast burst out into insane laughter. The beast roared with laughter so disturbed and so malicious that even the Shobijin were troubled by its tone. By the time the monster king had stayed his laughter, the twins had inched themselves back from the insanely laughing monster by several feet.

"_**PUNISHMENT**__**!?" **_He bellowed, his voice still cracking with laughter. _**"**__**I am a monster BORN from the fires of war! War, battle, conflict, combat, fighting, these things are my drugs! And you punish me with them!? It's laughable! YOU FOOLS! HA HA HA HA! AND you give me the one thing that will allow me to continually fight in war for the rest of time … IMMORTALITY!? I don't even care if you make me a human, it's all worth it**__**!!"**_

The Shobijin merely shook their heads at the foolishness of the creature before them.

"_**THIS IS NO PUNISHMENT! YOU DAMN FOOLS! THIS IS THE GREATEST GIFT I HAVE EVER BEEN GIVEN!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**__**!!"**_

"_It may seem that way now__," _The Shobijin said with a slight bit of pity in their voices. _"__But soon you will understand the pain of a human existence … lose__." _

The great beast was so busy roaring with insane laughter once again that he only barely registered what they had said to him. The Shobijin sighed in defeat. He clearly wasn't listening to them. The two fairies waved their hands in unison and invoked their magic.

All at once the great Kaiju's form was engulfed in red light and once that light faded, all that remained where the monster king had once been was a glowing red sphere the size of a soccer ball with the kanji for fire burned into the side.

"_It is in the nature of humanity to form bonds with each other__."_ The Shobijin said to the sealed Kaiju. _"__Trust us; once you become human you will create bonds of your own with your allies. And you will watch as each and every single one of your friends grows old and dies right before your eyes while you remain forever young. It will eat at you, and by the time your punishment is over and we send you home, you will be BEGGING for us to put you out of your misery and send you to hell__."_

With one more wave of their hands, the Shobijin sent the King of the Monsters off through a spiraling white portal which opened up just above the sealed monster to begin his eternal punishment.

"Do you ever think he will learn, Moll?" The blue dressed twin said to her sister, this time out loud and not using mental communication.

Moll seemed to think for a moment before she said, "When it comes to him, **nothing** could surprise me anymore. But one day, perhaps, if he can learn the value of human life, maybe there is hope. But only time will tell, Lora. Godzilla … he is truly one in a million."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

At the Hokage Mansion in the heart of Konohagakure no Sato, the Godaime Hokage Tsunade shot bolt upright in her bed with a scream. Her body was covered in a cold sweat and her breathing was quick and rasping.

The Godaime quickly applied a hand glowing with healing chakra to her chest to calm herself. After a few moments, once she regained control of herself, Tsunade sighed and glanced out the window to her right.

"That was the worst one yet." Tsunade said quietly to herself.

It was true, that had been the most vivid of her frightening dreams yet. Every night the dreams had been getting worse and worse, but that last one had been so real that she had actually felt like she was **there**, for real.

Tsunade sighed and pushed it out of her mind. She had better things to do than worry about something as simple as a nightmare. The Godaime then looked at the clock to her left, 12:30am … great, just fucking great.

Tsunade was just about to go back to sleep when all of a sudden her vision seemed to go blank for a brief moment. She shook her head once to clear her thoughts and she almost thought that she heard something. It almost sounded like two quiet little voices giggling in her ear.

Suddenly, Tsunade was gripped by the overwhelming need to go do some paperwork.

Wait, what?

The Godaime thought about it for a second and came to the same conclusion … she actually _**wanted**_ to go do paperwork! Tsunade quickly grabbed the empty cup on her bedside table and sniffed it. Nope, her night time glass of water hadn't been spiked with anything.

What the hell was up with that?

Tsunade made a mental note to go talk to Shizune about this little turn of events … after she had done some serious paperwork.

Then the Godaime got up and started getting dressed when she once again heard the sound of laughter in her ears and was gripped by an even greater need. She all of a sudden got the desire to change the night guards at the front gates.

Why the hell would she want to do that?

Then a single name came to her about who she wanted at the front gate.

Uzumaki Naruto?

What. The. Fuck.

Tsunade decided not to go against her new desires and took off down the hall to her office. When she arrived there a minute later she immediately buzzed her on-call secretary at the front desk down stairs.

The buzzer on her desk clicked once before a feminine voice said over the other end, "Yes (yawn) Madame? Can I (yaaaawn) help you?"

"Send me Hatake Kakashi's Team – 7." Tsunade said into the buzzer. "Also send Yuhi Kurenai's Team – 8, Sarutobi Asuma's Team – 10, and Team Guy stat."

"Yes ma'ma." The lady at the other end of the line yawned back.

Tsunade sighed and sat down in her chair. She still wasn't entirely sure why she was doing this.

"_Oh well_," She thought with a sigh, "_I think it might just be too little too late to stop it now._"

With another sigh, Tsunade glanced out the window of her office and looked over the night time landscape of her village, but when she looked out the window she saw something that struck her as odd.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as a single shooting star fell from the sky and landed somewhere off over the horizon. Shooting stars were relatively common and she actually took the appearance of a single shooting star as a sign of good fortune, but what struck her as odd about this particular one was that, to her, it looked not silver, but … red.

Tsunade shook her head and pushed it from her mind. It couldn't possibly be that important … could it?

If only she had known that her dreams were more than just dreams.

And if only she had known that the red light she had seen streak across the sky moments earlier, was _**not**_ a shooting star.

**END CHAPTER 1**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

So, what do ya think? Be sure to let me know! X)

_**Author's Note - (1): **_

Okay, right at this part of the story you must be thinking something along the lines of "_What do the Shobijin mean by absorbing the humans souls? Did he just make that up?_" To answer you … no, I didn't make it up.

In the 25th movie in the Godzilla series, **Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack**, Godzilla himself is the incarnation of those who died in WW2. In that movie, he basically _**is**_ a large group of lost souls gathered together, so all I did was tweak it a little so that Godzilla gets stronger by absorbing the souls of those he has killed. Can you deal with that?

_**Author's Note – (2):**_

Containing the souls of over 900,000,000 people might seem like a lot, but really, when you put it into perspective, it really isn't. Okay, let's look at this mathematically …

In that last attack, the Shobijin said he killed about five million people right? Okay, so let's say that he's attacked Japan 28 times (once for each of his movies) and that he's killed an average of five million people per attack. Five million people are roughly half the population of a city the size of Tokyo, so Godzilla has a 50 percent kill ratio.

Five million times twenty eight is equal to one hundred and forty million. So on his own Godzilla has killed 140,000,000 people.

Now for the other Kaiju.

Let's count only ten Kaiju in total. (There are actually thirty.) Let's say that they are … Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Anguirus, Zilla, Battra, Gigan, Baragon, Manda, and King Ghidorah. Let's exclude Godzilla because we've already counted him. So that's only _nine_ other Kaiju. Let's say that they have the same kill ratio as Godzilla, 28 attacks each with roughly 5 million dead per attack.

We already know that with the same kill ratio as Godzilla, they have killed around one hundred and forty million people each.

One hundred and forty million multiplied by nine is equal to one billion two hundred and sixty million people killed.

Add on Godzilla's 140,000,000.

Now we have one billion four hundred million dead people.

And now add on the roughly seventy two million people killed in WW2.

So in total that's now one billion four hundred and seventy two million people killed. (1,472,000,000) And that's only counting _**ten**_ Kaiju out of a possible **thirty** Kaiju.

So based on crunching the numbers, I really could have given Godzilla a number of souls in the BILLIONS! But considering the fact that I KNOW that the other Kaiju haven't attacked as much as Godzilla and the fact that some of the other monsters I mentioned are nowhere NEAR as aggressive as Godzilla, I made the number lower to even it out a bit. I probably could have been more exact, but I REALLY didn't feel like making up statistics and crunching the numbers again.

Besides, I burned out my last damn sharpie just doing that much math.

So yeah … Until I eventually post the next chapter!

NOTE!!

THIS WAS ONLY A SAMPLE OF WHAT WAS TO COME WITH THIS STORY AND I'M NOT SURE WHEN I CAN START TYPING AGAIN!

CHAPTER 2 WILL BE UP AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!!


	2. Ch2 The King's Rage

Okay, here we go! CHAPTER TWO! Hopefully it will be worth the wait!

**Disclaimer: **Again, I still don't own jack shit.

Chapter 2: The King's Rage

An early morning breeze blew down the forest path carrying with it a calm autumn fog which rolled across the ground and swirled among the trees. It was early October and the leaves on the trees had yet to begin their annual color change, but a slight chill was defiantly a sign of the changing seasons. The sunrise was still an hour away at this point and the night had grown to its darkest just before the dawn.

The only light by which one could see would be the glowing lanterns which hung on either side of the massive closed gates to the entrance of the village of Konohagakure no Sato. The silhouettes of four people could be seen standing outside the gates with two people on either side.

Leaning up against the left side of the gate with her arms crossed and a sleepy expression on her face was the pink haired kunoichi of Team – 7, Haruno Sakura. Her usual outfit, which she wore at the moment, seemed oddly wrinkled and un-kept for a woman who took pride in her looks. One could suppose that early mornings just all around suck for all those involved, even a neat freak like Sakura.

Sitting next to Sakura was a person she could honestly call a good friend … and a complete idiot. His legs were splayed, his orange jumpsuit was ruffled with the white collar drooping to the side, his head was bent back at an uncomfortable looking angle, his hair was a mess, his mouth was agape with a constant stream of drool dribbling out of the corner of his mouth, and there was a constant gurgled snore echoing from his mouth, but all in all Uzumaki Naruto was a good person and they type of guy you could really count on in the end.

It was just that he could be so damn stupid sometimes….

As if to cement his idiocy, Naruto suddenly gave a loud snort in his sleep causing a large blob of his saliva to fly out of his mouth and land directly on Sakura's exposed toes.

Needless to say, Sakura was no longer sleepy.

"BACK OFF DICK HEAD!" Sakura shouted at the top of her lungs as she delivered a harsh kick to her blond teammate's ribs sending him rolling a few feet away.

"Sakura-chaaaaaaan!" Naruto whined as he sat up. "That was mean of you."

The blond then got back up and walked back to his previous position, while making sure to stay at least one arm's length away from Sakura … for his own safety's sake.

"Sorry Naruto." Sakura said with a yawn. "But seriously, keep your drool to yourself … its gross."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and smirked sheepishly as he said, "Ne, sorry Sakura-chan. I guess I was just too sleepy to notice I was drooling."

Sakura sighed with a nod as she said, "I wonder why shishou made us of all people do guard duty at such an ungodly hour of the morning."

"Yeah, you're going to have to explain that one to us too." A rough male voice butted in from the other side of the gate.

Naruto and Sakura looked over to the opposite side of the gate to meet the combined gazes of Inuzuka Kiba, with his familiar Akamaru sitting on top of his head, and Hyuga Hinata.

"Y-yes, I w-would like to know w-why we're out here too." Hinata said in a soft meek voice.

Sakura shook her head with a sigh, "Heaven only knows why she would have _us_ doing this."

"She seemed kind'a high strung to me when she summoned us all to her office." Naruto said as he struck a thinking pose.

If only they had known what was really going on at the time that they had been summoned to the Hokage's office.

_FLASHBACK_

"_So do you all understand what you will be doing and where you are to be posted?" Tsunade asked the group of tired ninja before her._

_There were a few mumbles along the lines of "Yes Ma'ma" from the sleepy ninjas. They all looked extremely tired and untidy and not a single one of them looked anything close to what one might call "professional". Even for the jonin's in the room, one o'clock AM was still one fri'kin o'clock AM. _

_Tsunade's brow ticked slightly at her unenthusiastic subordinates._

"_To repeat myself for the third and FINAL TIME!" Tsunade bellowed snapping the ninja before her out of La-La Land and back to reality. "Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji, and Aburame Shino you will be guarding the Eastern Gate. Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Hyuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba you guys will be guarding the Western Gate. Hatake Kakashi, Yuhi Kurenai, and Sarutobi Asuma the three of you will be guarding the Main Southern Gate. And lastly, Hyuga Neji, Rock Lee, Tenten, and Might Guy … you lot will be running patrols along the top of the wall and will be ready to give assistance and/or call for backup for any team that may or may not find themselves in need of it. I will once again apologize to your team Kurenai, for the inconvenience of having to split you up, but as it is, we are one man short at the moment and the gates need to be as evenly guarded as possible with the recent rise in bandit activity and all." _

"_It isn't a problem at all Hokage-sama." Kurenai said with a slight yawn at the edge of her voice. "My team can make due just fine." _

"_Good," Tsunade said with a pleased nod, "Now are there any other questions before you head off?"_

_And, as if on cue, Naruto tentatively, ever so slowly, raised his left hand up into the air … exactly like the good little student that we all know he…_

"_WHY IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US YOU CRAZY OLD BAT! ITS ONE O'CLOCK IN THE DAMN MORNING!" _

… _is … -.-'_

_And Tsunade, being who she is, calmly and quietly stated her case … just like the kind patient being that we all know that she…_

"_BECAUSE I FUCKING SAID SO YOU INSOLENT LITTLE SHIT!"_

… _fuck it … T.T_

_Needless to say, any and all questions for the fifteen ninja standing in her office were answered instantly and simultaneously. _

"_If that's all Tsunade-sama," Kakashi said with a yawn, "I think we'll all head off to our posts now."_

"_Yeah, That'll be all." Tsunade said with a dismissive flick of her wrist. _

_At that dismissive cue, Naruto hauled ass out of that office quicker that you could say "holy shit! what the fuck was that orange blur?". His fellow genin, not wanting to be caught in any potential aftermath of the blond r-tard's actions, quickly followed suit and got their asses out of a potential ground-zero ready to happen. This left the jonin sensei's and an angered Hokage staring at the open door to the office. _

"_God … Damn … Kids …" Tsunade mumbled as she attempted to control her temper._

"_S-sorry about them Hokage-sama." Asuma said meekly. "W-we'll be sure to give them a good scolding over this."_

"_Be sure that you do." Tsunade growled out through gritted teeth. "Dismissed."_

_The four jonin bowed before their Kage and turned around to leave. _

_However before they had gotten five steps away a strange feeling washed over Tsunade. Her vision seemed to go blank for a moment and she felt light headed as the sound of two little laughing voices chimed in her ears once again. The Hokage's vision seemed to glaze over in a calm fog as unnoticed to her and the four jonin with their backs turned to her, a small piece of paper seemed to materialize in her grip. It almost seemed like fairy dust being sprinkled down over her open palm which took the shape of a folded piece of paper._

"_Wait one moment please Hatake Kakashi, Yuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, Might Guy." Tsunade said in a deadpan tone with her eyes half lidded and glazed over._

_The four jonin turned around and stared at their Hokage. That voice she had used was very odd to them._

"_Are you alright Hokage-sama?" Guy said curiously, "You sound a little … ugh ,off."_

"_I am per-fec-tly fine, Might Guy." Tsunade said once again in a flat emotionless voice with her eyes still glazed over. "I thank you for your concern."_

"_Okaaaaay…?" Guy said with a look at his fellow jonin._

"_Tsunade-sama," Kakashi said with a step forward, "Are you sure that you're-"_

"_Hatake Kakashi," Tsunade said in an ever emotionless voice, "This concerns you and your team." _

_Kakashi was slightly taken aback at this and could only muster up the will to say, "W-what is it?"_

"_It has come to our attention that you are one teammate short of a full three man squad." Tsunade continued._

"_You mean '__**your**__ attention'." Kakashi corrected her meekly, "Not '__**our**__'."_

"_Yes, that is what I said." Tsunade said as if she had never made a mistake. "Your team is one man short."_

"_Yeah," Kakashi said with a look at his three friends behind him, "And it has been for over two months now, since Sasuke left us. Are you sure that you're okay Tsuna-"_

"_I have previously stated that I am per-fic-tly well, Hatake Kakashi." Tsunade said in her continuously emotionless tone. "Back to the subject at hand. I have decided to fill the gap in your ranks."_

"_W-what do you mean by 'fill in our ranks'?" Kakashi asked._

"_It is ex-ac -tly as it sounds, Hatake Kakashi." Tsunade said, "I have found a replacement for the one you call Uchiha Sasuke."_

"_Now wait one minute Tsunade." Kakashi said defiantly as he drew himself up to his full height, "My team and I are not looking to replace Sasuke. Even if we were ready to replace him, you haven't even consulted the rest of my team. They are as much a part of this as I and I'll have you know-"_

"_That is enough from you, Hatake Kakashi." Tsunade butted in, her usual deadpan tone had raised slightly enough to show that she was becoming frustrated. "This is not up for dis-cus-sion. The decision is final. In fact, your new teammate is on his way as we speak." _

_Tsunade then held up the newly materialized sheet of paper and showed it to the jonin before her._

"_The paperwork has already been completed and approved by the council." Tsunade continued. "He should be arriving at the main gate sometime around sunrise. He is a little older than your current team members, but he will serve his purpose just fine. He was pre-vi-ous-ly a monk at the Fire Temple and he was highly recommended for his skill by his fellow monks."_

_Kakashi growled under his breath at this, he still didn't like this one bit. "Tsunade, I-" _

"_If it helps, you may think of him as a tem-po-rar-y replacement until something else can be arranged." Tsunade interrupted. She then handed the paper to Kakashi before she continued. "However, until something else can be arranged, he is to be treated as one of your teammates, understood…" _

_Kakashi unfolded the paper he had been given while Tsunade continued to talk and he read the kid's bio. _

_**Name**__: Gojira, Tenmakei_

_**Age**__: 16_

_**Ethnicity**__: Caucasian _

_**HairColor**__: Dark Gray_

_**EyeColor**__: Murky Blue_

_**Height**__: 6'1"_

_**Weight**__: 173 lbs_

_**Physique**__: Muscular_

_**Relatives/Family**__: Unknown_

_**BirthPlace**__: Unknown_

_**HomeTown**__: Unknown_

_**Techniques/Abilities**__: Unknown_

_**Loyalties**__: Land of Fire_

_**PreviousLoyalties**__: Unknown_

_**SkillLevel**__: Elite – High Jonin/ANBU_

_**CurrentClassification**__: Jinchuuriki _

_**Theme Song**__: King of Kings by Motorhead_

_Kakashi's one visible eye went wide with utter shock at reading the information on the paper. As the shock of what he had just read began to die down a bit one single thought burned at his mind, "Oh. My. God. HE HAS HIS OWN THEME SONG! Aw man, why don't I have a theme song? That's not cool dude, that's not cool at all, why the fuck does he get a … hay, wait a minute … __**JINCHUURIKI**__?"_

"_Tsunade-sama," Kakashi spoke up, "Why are you putting someone with jonin level skills, who also happens to be a __**Jinchuuriki**__, on my genin level team?"_

_The other jonin's eyes snapped to their Kage at hearing that their village would be receiving a new Jinchuuriki, not to mention that the boy would be going to Kakashi's team. _

"_To be frank, Hatake Kakashi," Tsunade said, "Your team is lagging behind and could use a little boost in skill to help your team members catch up. Not only that, but you already have experience in dealing with his type."_

_Kakashi's eyes narrowed, "What exactly is __**'his type'**__ supposed to mean Tsun-"_

"_That will be enough from you all." Tsunade broke in, "Dismissed." _

_Kakashi faltered at this but decided it would be best not to go against his leader, "As you wish, Hokage-sama."_

_Kakashi then thought to himself, "I'll tell my team about this later. Maybe the kid won't be so bad; I guess we could give it a chance. Besides, if I tell those two now, they'll just be bias against him and they might not even give him a chance." _

_The four jonin then bowed and turned to leave the room._

"_All glory to HypnoToad." Tsunade muttered under her breath. _

"_What was that Tsunade-sama?" Kakashi asked with a quick look back at the Godaime._

"_I said dismissed, Hatake Kakashi." Tsunade repeated. _

"_Okay then." Kakashi said before he and his fellow jonin left the room and he closed the door behind them._

_The second the door closed behind them, Tsunade's unconscious body slumped limply onto the desk in front of her as the power at force left her body, leaving the now mentally exhausted girl to sleep._

_END FLASHBACK_

Naruto shrugged with a sigh. The hell if he knew why Tsunade had them out here at this hour.

"She's going paranoid if you ask me." Naruto said.

"It probably has to do with the recent rise in bandit activity." Sakura added with a thoughtful look. "Over a dozen people have been mugged along this road in the past week, and three of them were even _killed_."

"Which completely explains why the Hokage wants a bunch of genin guarding one of the entrances to a hidden village." Kiba said sarcastically.

"Good point." Naruto and Sakura said in unison.

"I-if you ask me," Hinata said, "I think there's something that she isn't telling us."

They all nodded in agreement at Hinata's statement.

"Speaking of not telling us something," Naruto said, "Did you guy get the feeling that our sensei's were hiding something from us?"

"Well, now that you mention it…" Kiba said thoughtfully, "They did seem like they were hiding something, didn't they?"

"Whatever," Sakura shrugged, "I don't think that they would hide something from us if it wasn't important."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Naruto said as he plopped back down on his spot.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned," Sakura said as she sat down next to her teammate, "Let's just do our job, get through this shift, and go home to sleep the day away."

"Amen." They all said in unison. Akamaru barked.

However, unbeknownst to the four genin and their K9 companion (but knownst to us as the readers/author) in the trees down the path, a group of men laid in wait. There were at least four dozen of them and they were all dressed in the same black ninja suits and hoods with face masks. They had varying headbands on hailing from every village in the ninja world; one thing that they all had in common though, was the fact that their headbands were all scratched out to show their ranks as nukenin.

One man stepped forward out of the crowd, his uniform was white instead of black with a crossed out Kiri headband. On his back, he had a large sword strapped into place by white wrappings which were tightly coiled around the handle. The sword was about as long as his body and looked somewhat like an oversized steak knife, with serrations running from the tip to about the midpoint, with a straight edge extending down from there to the handle.

This guy was clearly the head honcho of the group.

"At the next changing of those guards," The boss said to his fellow nukenin, "That's when they'll be at their most vulnerable and that's when we'll sneak in there. Schismatic's of Konohagakure will sell for millions to those willing to pay the price. All we have to do is get in and out of that Hokage Tower of theirs and we'll be on easy street for the rest of our days. Not too tough of a task for genjutsu users like yourselves and with one of the _Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist_ leading you lot, victory is inevitable. You might only be chunin level ninja but when you band together like this, with me as your leader, even Konoha will be unsuspecting victims of The Parasites."

The fellow members of the Parasite Organization all snickered evilly at the thought of pulling off a job of this level right under the noses of one of the most powerful of the hidden villages.

"Now all we need to do is wait."

_MEANWHILE _

Three miles up the road from the group of forty eight bandits and their swordsman leader, a figure cloaked in darkness walked down the foggy nighttime trail towards the entrance to Konoha.

The man was dressed in a distinct Victorian fashion which seemed to fit the persona he was radiating. He wore a well fitting charcoal suit which fit him in all the right ways, around his neck was an intricately tied black cravat tie which swayed slightly with his every step, and on his feet he wore a pair of black leather steel toed riding boots which came up almost to his knees. Over it all he had on a long, black, flowing trench-coat which was split up the middle and came down to his ankles; and on his head he wore a large black fedora hat with a wide, floppy brim which stretched out to the edges of his shoulders. And although his face was cloaked in the shadow of his hat, two round glows could clearly be seen piercing through the darkness of the night as the figure looked out at the world through a pair of orange, heavily-tinted circular wire frame sunglasses with goggle sidings. **(1)**

But the thing that stuck out most about this man was the pair of tightly fitting black fingerless gloves which he wore on his hands. It wasn't so much the gloves themselves which caught one's attention, nor was it the pale, ghastly un-tanned fingers with slightly yellow nails which stuck out of the finger holes of the gloves. It was the glowing red insignia which was branded onto the back of each of the gloves which stuck out the most.

The insignia consisted of a double lined pentagram inside of two circles which stretched around it. In the five spaces in between the tips of the five pointed star were what looked like ring segments with sun beams stretching from the segments to the first circle around the pentagram. The area between the two circles was divided into four sections by large dividing dots. In the top section (printed in an unreadable language to the people of this world, known as _the Queen's English_) was the word _Hellsing_. In the left section of the glove was printed, _Hells Gate Arrested_. Opposite that, in the right section was printed the words, _And Shine Heaven Now_. And in the bottom section there was printed a single word, _Shobijin_. Along the outside edge of the outer circle was printed what looked like ancient runes of some sort, written in some long forgotten language, unreadable to even the wearer of the black gloves. Beneath the bottom of the pentagram, in a break in the ancient ruins, were four bars with dots on the ends and just beneath those bars were printed the numbers 666. And finally, in the center of the pentagram, was the cross-like symbol of the Shobijin themselves. **(2)**

The man continued to walk down the path at a leisurely pace towards his final destination. He was in no rush, the village wasn't going anywhere, he had all the time in the world.

The man chuckled lightly as a large, toothy grin cracked its way across his face.

"Tell me again what you made her say to those ninja." He seemed to say to no one in particular. His voice was a smooth baritone, even and steady in the cold night air.

"All glory to HypnoToad." Came two tiny laughing voices from slightly above his left shoulder.

"Nehehahaha." The man chuckled lightly; the grin on his face seemed to get even larger than it was before. "You girls do know that if they did hear you, they'll never get the joke, right? But I'm sure Fry would be rolling on his ass from laughter if he ever found out about this."

"Yeah, we know." The Shobijin said as they swooped down on their little moth to hover just above his left shoulder.

"You girls are always playing tricks on hapless humans." The man said to the twin fairies floating next to him. "It never fails to get a laugh out of me."

The girls looked down at him with tiny smiles on their faces.

"You've changed." They said to him.

"Oh?" He questioned with a slight tilt of his head. "And how might that be?"

"You used to hate us." The twins said in unison. "Even loathed us, with a bloody passion we might add. Every chance you got, every time we came within sight of you, you would throw rocks at us, scream the thousand different ways you were going to rip us to pieces to the heavens, fire your _favorite_ attack us and at anything that happened to be in your path. And heaven forbid we ever got within an arm's length of you."

"Yeah, and I came close to getting you a few times too."

"We noticed." The Shobijin stated dryly.

He chuckled lightly.

"But now look at you." The twins continued. "Here we are, not a foot away from you, and you speak to us as if you were talking to a friend. Not to mention the fact that we can sense that we are completely safe in your presence, the thought of taking a swipe at us hasn't even crossed your mind."

"Oh please girls," He said, "I wouldn't do that to you. It took me some time to realize it, however now I can see that you two are truly all that I have left."

The Shobijin turned to him, slightly surprised. "And what do you mean by that?"

"You were right that day." He said as the smile left his face and he took on a more serious tone. "So long ago, the day my curse began. You said that when I became like _this_," He gestured vaguely to his body with his left hand, "That I would become like _them_ and form bonds. You were right. You two are the one thing that has remained constant in my life. You don't grow old, you don't wither away, you don't die, you don't leave me alone. You two are the closest thing to family that I have now, that's one thing that I can be thankful for. As you said I would, I developed bonds with the people that I was surrounded with. It took me a couple dozen life times, but I finally began to warm up to the people around me. I even began to consider them friends, after I got used to them. And as you said, I had to watch them grow old and die right before my eyes, and it's eating at me. You two are the one constant in my life, that's why I can never again bring myself to harm you."

A look of pity came over the girls at hearing him say that.

"How long has it been now Moll, Lora?" He asked them solemnly. "How long has it been since the day Dimension Tide swallowed me up? How long has it been since you gave me my punishment and awakened my hell? How long as it been since I, so boldly and foolishly, stated that your _gift_ of immortality was the greatest thing that ever happened to me? How long?"

The twin fairies looked thoughtful for a moment, as if questioning wether or not to really answer him. The two then sighed in unison before saying, "Out of your nine hundred million life times, you have gone through three hundred and fifty million of them, and this lifetime will make it three hundred and fifty million and one. With one hundred and twenty years allowed to each _**non-mission-based**_ life time that you've lived, that means that you have walked the path of existence for ten billion five hundred million years. Not to mention the sixty five million years that you were frozen under Lagos Island before you awoke in the 1940's. All in all, that makes you the single oldest living being in all of creation; you're almost as old as the universe itself. You're even older than us." **(3)**

He sighed sadly. "And I'm barely one third of the way through it all."

"We're sorry." The twins said sympathetically.

"No you're not." He said quietly. "Not really."

The Shobijin sighed quietly at hearing him.

He was right. They weren't truly sorry. They only felt pity for him. He deserved this fate. No matter how much he had changed inside, his crimes were unforgivable. This was how it had to be. He was still, after all, a monster.

"But through it all," The twins said in an attempt to cheer him up, "You have changed for the better because of it. You started off as a mindless dinosaur, eating anything that came in your path, but just look at you now. You have developed a friendship with us; not to mention that you've have cooled off quite a bit. And there's even more to you than that Godzi…"

"You know that you shouldn't call me by that name anymore girls." He interrupted them.

The girls smiled sweetly at hearing him say that, "Of course your right, Tenmakei."

Tenmakei gave a nod of approval with a slight smirk.

"As we were saying," The Shobijin continued, "You've gotten so good that you can even go into human settlements and live among them now without causing mass slaughter. And you've learned a lot from the lives that you've lived."

"Particularly that last one." Tenmakei said with a smirk. "Speaking of my last life, why did you leave their sealing system in place? Anything that happens to me in my lives is usually reset upon my death in that world. You usually let me keep some personal things that have memories and use to them, but here you let the genetic experimentations they did to me stay perfectly in place, not to mention _my_ version of the Control Art Restriction Systems. So spill it, what's the deal? You know that the very mechanics of that system make me stronger than I was before, isn't that sort of counterproductive of what you had in mind for me?"

"We did think that at first." The Shobijin explained. "And that's why we were initially so angry at your boss for doing what he did to you; however there are four very important reasons that we decided to allow you to keep the Hellsing Organization's sealing system in place. The first reason is that we came to realize that certain situations can arise in your lives where you may be in need of your power. The second is that using that system allows you access to most of your power without the need to revert to your true form. The third is that it gives you much greater control over your power than you used to have. Instead of just reverting to your original form and going berserker on everything in your path, it allows you to maintain control of yourself and focus your power, even when you revert back to your original self. And finally, and this one is the most important to us, due to the modifications we implanted into the seal after Integra told us what she had done, our permission is required for you to use any of your power. And having a level of control over you is worth allowing you to keep those powers you have been granted through the Control Art Restriction Systems."

"I suppose that makes sense." Tenmakei said thoughtfully. "However I can't help but feel that I'm too much like that damn vampire."

"What do you mean by that?" The Shobijin asked.

"Just look at me." Tenmakei said as he gestured to his clothes. "I look just like the bastard."

"No you don't." The twins said encouragingly. "You're much more attractive than him, plus your clothes are black and his are red."

Tenmakei stopped mid step and tilted his hat up with his thumb while flicking his glasses farther down his nose with a jerk of his head. He then turned his head and looked at the Shobijin floating just above his left shoulder with curiosity glowing in his eyes. His handsome face became illuminated with the light of the slowly setting full moon. His creamy white skin seemed to glow in the moon light and contrasted perfectly with the locks of straight dark gray hair which fell down over parts of his face like waterfalls flowing out into the open from an unseen source. His features were shapely and masculine giving him the look of a sculpted Greek statue. His face was long and proportional, with a straight pointed nose at its center. His jaw was square and rough; the faintest hints of a five o'clock shadow still lingered on his jaw line. His smirking lips were luscious and full and as smooth as new born baby's. His deep murky blue eyes had an indescribable intensity to them, the same intensity that once burned within the magma orange eyes of the King of the Monsters; the beast that still dwelled within Tenmakei's nuclear heart, waiting to be unleashed once again.

But the most prominent feature of his face rested over his right eye. The scars of battles long since past cut deeply into the soft smooth skin of his face. Four scars ran down his face from just above his hairline to about his mid cheek. The pattern of the four parallel lines made them look like they had been inflicted on him by some sort of large wild animal which may have attempted to shred his right eye out of its socket. Whatever had given him those scars had not succeeded in doing so. His right eye remained perfectly safe and just as healthy as his other eye, right in the middle of the sideways-sloping battle scars on his handsome face.

He stared at the Shobijin for a long time; his eyes watched them with a half lidded gaze for anything that might give them away. He arched his left eyebrow at them causing the girls to giggle at him. The Monster King scoffed at the girl's joking before returning his hat and glasses to their original positions and continuing his walk towards the hidden village.

"You two know exactly what I mean." Tenmakei said to the two kiss-ass twins.

Moll and Lora couldn't help but giggle again.

"I'm wearing the exact same clothing set as that bastard _nosferatu_, the only thing different is that my clothes are black and the gloves are fingerless with a slightly altered seal." Tenmakei growled out with a slight shiver. "Just because Professor Van Helsing found it simpler to better control the Release States with clothing multiple apparatuses doesn't mean that I have to like them."

"At least you have your own gloves, and boxers." The Shobijin giggled. "Poke-o-dots, if we remember correctly."

"Shut it."

"Well, the clothes are a necessary element to controlling the Release States." The Shobijin said, quoting what the Professor had told them over a century ago at this point. "And besides that, you have grown fond of the hat, glasses and cape."

"It's a coat."

"Well it's so freak'in long and tight on your shoulders and arms that it _acts_ almost like a cape."

"Whatever you two say." Tenmakei said sarcastically with an over-exaggerated and dramatic shrug; he was starting to remember why he could be pissed at these two for centuries at a time. "The only real complaint that I have is that I'm not just wearing this coat," he gave a flicking tug to the _cape-like part_ of the coat which was fluttering behind him as he walked, "I'm also wearing a full suit under this too! Its fine right now, but do you have any idea how fucking _hot_ it gets in this getup in broad daylight!"

"Well, you are a reptile at heart. Shouldn't you like the heat?"

"Fuck that." He said bluntly. "This is BULLSHIT! I SWEAR IF THE I HADN'T BARGAINED FOR MY SOUL WITH THAT MAN AND _**LOST**_, THEN I WOULD HAVE PUT A BULLET IN HIS HEAD A LONG TIME AGO!"

"Temper, temper." The Shobijin reminded him coolly. "And how would you plan to put a bullet in his head without a working gun Mr. Smartass? As we remember it, your custom made six shooter, _the Taurus,_ was cracked in your last fight, not to mention that it's out of ammo."

At hearing them say that, Tenmakei couldn't stop a shit eating devilish grin which Judas in Hell would be proud of from stretching across his face from ear to ear.

"Well now that you mention it, I do have a plan for fixing the Taurus and I already know how to make ammo for it." Tenmakei chuckled. "But who's to say that I don't have another working gun for use in the meantime?"

Moll and Lora's eyes snapped open wide at hearing that as they put two and two together.

"You didn't keep _it_, did you?" The Shobijin squealed down at Tenmakei.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." Tenmakei said as he patted the left side of his trench coat with his right hand. "Who's to say?"

"Oh God, you did." The Shobijin choked as they pinched the bridges of their tiny noses, "You kept his favorite gun. You know that Vlad was never a patient man, nor is he one to take a joke lightly."

"Who said that this is a joke?" Tenmakei said with a chuckle. "I'm keeping this fucker."

"Vlad said that you could borrow it!" The Shobijin squealed, "_Borrow it_! If, no, _when_ he finds out that you took that gun with you … oh God, you _know_ what he said he'd do to you."

"How could I forget?" Tenmakei said. "I think it went something like this, ahem … quote, '_Understand this, the only reason I am letting you even __**touch**__ that gun is because my Master has ordered me to do so, now listen closely. So help me God, if you lose that gun, or if that gun gets damaged, or if (Lucifer help you) you try to __**take**__ that gun, I'm going to bend you over my Master's desk, drop your pants, shove __**my **__new gun up your ass and pull the trigger until it goes __**click.**_', end quote. Was that about right?"

"You do a very good impression of his voice." The Shobijin complimented. "But did nothing of what he said sink into your thick skull at all?"

"Actually, it took me about half an hour to register what he had said to me." Tenmakei said. "At the time all that I heard was, quote … '_Bla bla, bla bla bla bla bla __**that gun**__, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla __**God**__, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla __**Lucifer**__, bla bla bla __**you**__, bla bla __**takethatgun**__, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla __**new gun**__, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla __**click**__._' … end quote. That's what I usually hear spewing out of his mouth anyway. I just turn on the _tune it out switch _in my head and relax."

"You're an ass-hole Tenmakei."

"No shit Sherlocks."

"No, really, you are. In fact, you should know that we think that bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **irresponsible** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **royal bleeding a-hole** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **and you** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **listening** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **a word that we** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **you son of a** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **LISTEN TO US** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **WAIST OF OXYGEN** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **MOTHER GRABBING** bla bla bla bla bla bla **BASTARD **bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **ALCOHOLIC** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **WHORE – MONGERING** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **CHAIN – SMOKING** bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **GAMBLING **bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **MOTHER FUC-- **bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla **HORSE SHIT!**"

"Are you finished?"

"(Pant) (pant) (pant) Yeah. (Pant)"

"Good." Tenmakei sighed as he deactivated his _tune it out switch_. "But seriously, why would I return such a fun little toy."

His tone was all of a sudden much darker, malicious even. A sinister smile stretched across his face as he chuckled evilly at his own thoughts.

The Shobijin's eyes narrowed at seeing his personality shift.

"He he." Tenmakei chuckled darkly. "Such a fun little thing to play with. A capacity for killing surpassing the most finely crafted swords. A weapon of death, uncivilized, cold, sinister, lethal, unstoppable. Just like me. He, he. I only got to use _this_ gun very briefly against that insane, cult worshiping vampire, but when I did use it, it was maddening just how much damage one little piece of white hot bless'ed silver can do. I can't wait to see what a gun like this will do to the hapless shinobi of this world! I can see the appeal the humans of my first home had. Nehehahahahaha!"

"And that is exactly why your punishment continues." The Shobijin said coldly.

"Pardon me?" Tenmakei growled at the twins with a reptilian hiss in his throat.

"You've become schizophrenic." The twins said in their ever cold tone. "You have a split personality. Whenever you're around us, you're as friendly as can be. But when you are around other people, you become cold, isolated, insolent, foul, quick to judge other people, and you develop an insufferable singular attitude. And when you even _talk_ about battle or killing, let alone actually engage in it, you become brutal, sadistic, arrogant, and insane."

"Well I don't see it." Tenmakei scoffed.

"Oh don't bull-shit us!" The Shobijin growled. "You know damn well what we mean. Even through everything tha- bla bla, bla bla bla bla bla bla bl- _**DON'T YOU DARE FUCKING TUNE US OUT!**_"

"Alright, alright. Geeeeez."

"Like we were trying to say," The Shobijin growled. "Even through everything that you've been through, you still haven't learned a damn thing about the value of human life! You still kill without mercy, with no regard for the moral values of life itself! You don't just go for a quick kill in a one on one fight, you belittle your opponent, humiliate them in their final moments! And most importantly, even though you lived for more than ten billion years, you still can never grasp the concept of love. Through your lives, you've settled down with countless wives and fathered infinitely more sons and daughters. You watched them grow up powerless and human, and no matter how much you said it to them, you _never_ loved them, _never_. Because that's what you are, a loveless evil monst--"

"**SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTHS!"** Tenmakei bellowed as he swung around to face the twin fairies causing his hat and glasses to fly off of his head. His hair fell forward; with it being combed forward, his hair was longer in front than in back and it fell around his face like a madman ready to strike.

Tenmakei glared at them with an anger he hadn't felt in centuries. His eyes burned with unholy _rage_; his foul stare mercilessly burning into their very hearts and souls. The girls stared back in terror at the eyes of the beast that they had imprisoned in human form so many millennia ago, the black sclera and magma orange irises of Godzilla, King of the Monsters burned at them with a rage even greater than any they had ever seen, and it frightened them. For the first time in as long as they could remember, they were truly scared for their lives.

"**Don't you DARE!" **Tenmakei roared at them, his voice low and menacing. **"Don't you EVER think that you have the right to speak to me like that! They were my lovers, my wives, my sons, my daughters, my FAMILY! YOU FUCKING BITCHES! AND YOU CALL ME HEARTLESS! IT'S LAUGHABLE! You know NOTHING! How could I **_**not **_**have loved them? They were my life. My reasons for existing in each world that I lived in. And I watched them grow old and die. I went to my own children's FUNERALS! How could you say that I never loved them? How? YOU FUCKERS!"**

"Let me ask you this then." Moll said on her own. "Can you tell me the name of your first wife?"

"**You ask me such a stupid question Moll? OF COURSE I CAN!"** Tenmakei bellowed. **"Amy R. Wilson!" **

"Oh, really?" Moll said as she put her hand on her chin thoughtfully, "Your second?"

"**This is ridiculous!"**

"Answer the question."

"**Stephaney McDaniel!" **

"Your third?"

"**Moll, don't test my--"**

"Answer."

"**Susan … uh, Swan."**

"Your fourth?"

"**I swear to God I'll--"**

"Answer!"

"**It was … Angelica … um, Dice."**

"Your fifth?"

"**I don't have to fucking answer you!"**

"Yes you do. Answer!"

"**I refuse!"**

"ANSWER!"

"**NO!"**

"You don't remember her name, do you?" Lora butted in.

"**SHUT IT WHORE!"**

"Of course he doesn't." Moll said to her sister, "Because he never loved them, he's just trying to remember their names in order. But his multi-billion year old memory is failing him."

"**THAT'S A LIE!"**

"Really?" Lora said, "So you remember Franklin David Smith?"

"**WHY WOULD I REMEMBER THE NAME OF SOME RAT-BASTARD I HAVE NEVER MET?"**

"Never met egh?" Lora said. "Funny how you can't even remember the name of the first son your 300th wife gave to you."

"**NO! YOUR LYING!"**

"You know that we aren't." The twins said in unison. "The second we told you who he was you remembered him. Do you remember how many siblings he had?"

"**STOP BULL-SHITTING ME!"**

"So you can't tell us then, is that it?"

"**SHUT UP!"**

"Trick question." The twins said. "He never had any brothers or sister. At least by that wife."

"_**THAT'S ENOUGH!"**_

The twins couldn't help but jump back at the sheer volume of Tenmakei's voice. A flock of birds took flight from a nearby tree and hauled ass out of there like bats out'a hell.

"**Please."** Tenmakei begged as his eyes shifted back to blue. "Please, just stop."

Tears tugged at the corners of his eyes. The girls' eyes softened at seeing this.

"Tenmakei," The Shobijin whispered softly in an apologetic tone, "We're sorry, we didn't mean..."

"I know you're sorry." The ancient nuclear dragon hissed through his teeth. "For right now, that is. For this one frail, foolish flicker-flash in the long dull fall of eternity. I am unimpressed." **(4)**

The Shobijin cringed at his icy words and, for once, they seemed to be at a loss as for what to say next. For one who was once called The Dark Destroyer of _Fire_, his cold words stung at them like the coldest of Antarctic blizzards.

"You know we didn't mean it like that." The Shobijin said quietly, "You know that we would _never_--"

"Be silent!" He hissed. The Shobijin obeyed without question.

"Leave me be." Tenmakei ordered as he retrieved his hat and glasses and put them back in place. "This is one walk I will take alone."

The Shobijin were ready to slap each other for their stupidity. Opening up old wounds like that, just for the sake of wining an argument. They never thought they could be so stupid. It almost made them sick to their stomachs.

The Twin Fairies sighed in defeat, knowing that they couldn't properly apologies to him in his current state of mind. "Your admission slip to the village is in your left pocket."

He merely nodded with a grunt as he resumed his slow walk towards the village.

"When you calm down, call for us and we'll come." They said after him.

This time, he gave them no response. He just continued to walk away from them, his wide hat bobbing slightly with his every step, his shoulder … colder than a snowman's junk. In the dead of winter. At the north fucking pole. Cold.

The Shobijin sighed once again as they watched him go. Tenmakei followed the path as it turned to the left about a hundred yards down from where the argument had happened. It only took him three swift steps for him to be out of their line of sight and on his way to Konoha.

"We went way too far Lora." Moll said solemnly. "I don't think I've ever seen him that hurt before."

"Yeah." Lora said with a nod. "_You_ really did go too far."

"You're absolutely right. We … hay … wait a minute. Did you just…"

"I mean really." Lora continued. "How could _you_ be such an insufferable bitch to him like that?"

"HAY! I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE WHO--!"

"I mean _really_. _Such_ a fucking bitch."

"YOU'RE CALLING ME THE BITCH! YOU'RE ALSO--!"

"I mean really. _You_ acted just like some stupid hooker."

"YOU'RE A HOOKER!"

"I mean seriously. I don't even want to be associated with such a _huge gaping cunt_ like yourself. I mean come the fuck on, _you_ seriously overdid it back there."

"You know what? Fuck_ you_. That's what."

"I mean _reeeeally_. You--"

"No, no, no, no, no. Do you not understand what _fuck you_ means? It means … _Fuck. You_. Do I need to spell it out for you too? Okay its, F. U. C. K. Capital Y. O. U. Fuck you. _Bitch_."

"Okay, okay. I'm done."

"Nugh-ugh. The standing _Fuck You_ is still in effect. So, once again, _FUCK YOU_."

"BUT I WAS JUST KIDDING!"

"I will once again repeat myself so that your slow, cum stained brain can comprehend my words. _FUUUUUUUUUUCK_. _YOUUUUUUUUUUU_."

"Fine. Damn it."

"Good." Moll said with a nod. She then looked down at the moth that they were flying on before saying, "Fairy, let's go girl."

The green eyed moth chirped cutely and tilted its head to the side before it flapped its beautiful wings once and they all disappeared in a bright flash of white light.

Meanwhile, Tenmakei continued to angrily stalk his way towards the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He quickened his pace slightly, he still had two and a half miles to go and he only had about another thirty minutes of darkness left. He might be pissed, but he still had a schedule to keep. However one single thought stayed firmly rooted in his mind while he walked:

"_I need to kill something, anything, any__**one**__. When I get to that village, God damn it … heaven help anything that pisses me off._"

**END CHAPTER 2**

Until next time my friends!

I'm sorry this took so long to happen, but life interferes you know? Anyway, I still have no idea when the next chapter will be posted because of how erratic my writing schedule is and all that jizz.

Peace!

_**AUTHOR'S NOTES**_

**1): **If you want a visual aid for his looks, just imagine Alucard's clothes from _Hellsing_ and make them black instead of red. I think you all have enough imagination to do that.

**2) : **I know that I suck at describing the gloves, so here's a link to my deviantart account and a cheap little picture I did of the gloves –

**http: (double slash) kazeookami214 (dot) deviantart (dot) com (slash) art (slash) Tenmaki-Gogira-s-Gloves-138035367**

Just be sure to close the spaces and to replace the (dot)'s and the (slash) es / (double slash) es with the appropriate punctuation.

**3) : **Feel free to check my math on Tenmakei's age. I did it on a used napkin with a sharpie, so I'm probably off by a few centuries … give or take a few.

**4) : **A quote from the **Dragon **in John Gardner's novel _Grendel_. Look out for little hints like these throughout the story to try to piece together parts of his past. These sorts of things are meant to show the recognizable characters that Tenmakei may, or may not, have been in his past lives. The Dragon is just one of them.


	3. Ch3 The King's Rage 2

**Disclaimer:** Alas, I still don't own Naruto, or anything for that matter. However, when I become _**dictator**_ of America, that will all change… _**Muahahahahahahahahaha!!**_ … um, ahem.

_**I NEED REVIEWS TO CONTINUE!! SOMETHING, ANYTHING WILL DO!! PLEASE!?**_

"_By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes…"_ – William Shakespeare

Chapter 3: The King's Rage 2

_AN HOUR LATER_

At Konoha's West Gate, our group of four genin were still waiting patiently for their shift at the gate to be over. The sun had been up for about half an hour now and the autumn air carried a gentle breeze across the genin team. It had taken them some time to fully understand it, but now they could see as plain as day that guard duty … was fucking boring.

Naruto had fallen asleep again, Sakura was drawing in the dirt with a stick, Kiba was playing tug-of-war with Akamaru, and Hinata was throwing kunai at a nearby tree for target practice. But at least it was peaceful, or so they thought.

The band of forty eight nukenin in the trees nearby weren't much better off than Naruto and the gang. Suicidal thoughts raced through their heads as they were forced to remain still for fear of being spotted and having their cover blown. As masters in the art of genjutsu they had quickly put up several layers of illusions to hide their presence in the large tree they were in, however in a life as a rouge ninja, one could never be too careful, especially when one is planning the infiltration of one of the five great hidden villages.

Their white clad swordsman leader sat on a high branch near the top of the tree with a bored look on his face. His left leg swung back and forth lazily off the side of his branch as he slowly sharpened his large sword with a piece of flint. Boredom, it would seem, is a universal trait shared by all people, even a master at the art of the shinobi such as himself.

His dull gray eyes briefly flickered to the genin at the gate about a hundred or so yards down the road. He lightly scoffed at the foolishness that these kids displayed. He had determined early on in their stakeout that these kids, quite frankly, _sucked_ at being ninja.

Despite the distance that separated them he could still see that one of them was an Inuzuka, judging by the little dog that he was playing with, and the girl next to him looked to be a Hyuga, based on what he could see of her eyes in the early morning light. The Inuzuka and the Hyuga clans were legends in the ninja world for their tracking capabilities, the Inuzuka for their dogs and noses and the Hyuga for their legendary Byakugan. But from what he could tell the Inuzuka boy was far too busy playing with his puppy to be looking out for their scent and the Hyuga girl didn't even seem to have her Byakugan active. And the two others just seemed to be there to take up space.

These guys were pathetic.

Thoughts raced through his head as to why he shouldn't just change his plans and have the dolts that he hired to take this job with him put these kids into a genjutsu and slip past them. Why not just kill them you might ask? Well, based on what the scout he sent out told him, there was a group of ninja of unknown rank running patrols across the top of the wall. From his scout's best guess the squad could travel between the West Gate and the East Gate every twenty minutes or so. That would mean that if they acted immediately after they saw the patrol leave the area, then they would have a maximum of twenty minutes before the patrol returned and either discovered the bodies, blood stains, or absent guards.

That was not enough time to get across such a large village incognito, find a supper secret and likely highly guarded scroll containing the village's schematics, get back to the gate, and get well out of sight before the bodies were discovered. They were looking at a six to eight hour round trip all in all. So no matter how much fun it would have been to have simply killed the brats, it would be much more practical to just put them under a genjutsu that made them think that they had fallen asleep and waltz right in.

His eyes scanned the genin once again and he watched as the blond kid wearing the YOU-ARE-HERE orange jumpsuit fell over from his upright sleeping position and landed square on his face. What struck him as odd was how the kid didn't even seem to notice and kept right on sleeping.

"_Alright, that's it._" The leader thought with a growl. To hell with his plans, STRAIGHT TO HELL WITH THEM!! These kids were going down. The White Swordsman gave a quick whistle to one of the lower branches and up jumped his number two man.

"You need something sir?" The masked ninja said with a salute.

"Change of plans," the Boss said, "Once the signal is given, I want you and the boys to put a camouflage genjutsu up around us and were gonn'a go over there and tie those kids up and stuff 'em in the bushes."

"Yes sir." The ninja said, "But sir, um … what's the signal?"

The White Ninja then pointed his right index finger out towards the genin and said, "Every five minutes or so that girl on the end there runs out of kunai and has to go pull some out of that tree before she can start again. The next time she runs out, we strike."

"Yes sir!" The ninja said with a salute.

"Good, now go tell the rest of the guys." The Boss said.

The ninja merely nodded before jumping down to the lower branches to inform the rest of the men.

_MEANWHILE_

His pace had slowed after the first thirty minutes of trudging towards the village, and his rage had cooled. It had taken him another thirty minutes of walking after that to realize that the Shobijin had been sincere in their apology and that they had truly not meant to open up his old wounds. They were still little dickheads for even scratching at that topic of conversation, or in this case _argument_, in an attempt to prove their point though.

Tenmakei lifted up the large brim of his fedora hat and took a look around. Based on what he could see, he guessed that he was only a couple of minutes away from the village at this point. Though things had changed with time, he could still recognize many of the same features that he had seen so many years ago. Tenmakei tilted his head to the side as he strained his mind to remember the exact number.

Three, he concluded.

He had been to this dimension three times before. It had been well over a hundred lifetimes since he had last visited the village of Konoha. But then again, time did pass differently for him than it did for other people. The time between his first and second visits to this land had been only two lifetimes for him, but for the people of this world of ninja it had been well over three thousand years. And after that, the time between his second and third visit had been forty thousand lifetimes for him, but only seventy seven years had elapsed in this world.

It made him wonder how much time had passed for these people since his last visit. Not that he really knew anybody that he particularly wanted to meet up with, that is. His visits to this world were short ones, so he never really got to know anybody that well. In his last three trips to this world he had come to know only a few people well enough to want to see them again.

With five, he wanted to catch up on old times and possibly have a drink with. (Not that they would recognize him considering the change in his clothes and him reducing his _apparent_ age to 16.) But then there were two others and with them, well … he would like nothing better than to watch those rat bastards die as slowly and painfully as possible, if those two were still alive that is. If _any_ of them were still alive at all for that matter.

Tenmakei sighed as he reminisced about past friends. He wished that he had gotten to know them better while he still had had the chance. Every life he had lived in this world had been one where he needed to accomplish a set mission. As the Shobijin had so eloquently put it, "_We will send you to places where your power is needed, so that you may help the people of that land … whether you like it or not._"

The "like it or not" part had applied the last time he was in this world. Every time he had been to this world, he had been sent here to fulfill a purpose and as such he was quickly dispelled from this world after his task had been completed. Faking his death was a relatively easy thing to accomplish for one who had become a master of the art.

Unlike a normal lifetime, where the Shobijin would implant his soul (he had actually outright laughed at them the first time they had told him he actually had a soul of his own) into a woman's womb and have him grow up normally as a human (though with what some might call "superpowers" at his disposal), in a life where he had a job to do, it was in and out … so to speak. He was merely transplanted into the world in his adult, or in this case _teenage_, form and was sent along his business. Once the task was completed, he would simple find a secluded location and faze out of the world he was in and reenter the void that was Dimension Tide's black hole where he would await the Shobijin to send him along to his next life.

So due to the fact that he wasn't currently doing nine months of solitary confinement inside some woman's belly, which always drove him mad with boredom by the by, Tenmakei had concluded that he, yet again, had a mission to accomplish in this world. What that mission was though, he would have to ask Moll and Lora about later.

But for now it would have to wait.

About two hundred yards up the road he caught his first glimpse of the green gates to Konoha that he had not seen in a very long time. But just as he was about to make his presence known to what looked like four kids guarding the gate, an odd morning fog began to roll into the area and obstructed his view of the gate, and for that matter, the people he had seen at it only moments earlier.

He inhaled the mist deeply and expected to once again sample the refreshing scent and taste of the Konoha forest, but as he exhaled he noticed that this mist was not naturally made. It did not smell or taste like the village he remembered. The mist was far too thick to be natural and it was rather warm, not cold and refreshing as he expected.

The green scenery turned gray and unappealing in the thickness of the fog as it swirled around him and turned early morning into twilight. The sounds of the forest vanished as all the animals of the woods became still as the strange fog reduced the visibility of the area to almost nothing and distorted his shape into nothing but a dark silhouette with the glow of his dark orange glasses to show the location of his eyes.

"_It's been a while since I was last here, but I defiantly know a jutsu when I see one._" Tenmakei thought as he continued to walk towards the gate. He extended his presence out to the area and found there to be a group of forty eight men hiding in a tree one hundred yards up the path from him. He also found that there was one close to the top of the tree who had a significantly stronger ora than his fellows. He also seemed to be the one producing the Kirigakure no jutsu that was currently covering the area in fog.

Fucking up his day. Strike one.

Tenmakei removed his glasses and squinted into the fog in an attempt to see what was going on up ahead. No dice; his normal human vision had been reduced to a five meter radius bubble around him. Thankfully there was no need for _him_ to rely on _human_ eyes.

Tenmakei slowly closed his eyes, breathed in deeply and out calmly, and once again the eyes of the King of the Monsters looked out on the world. His burning orange eyes scanned through the thick mist once again and to him the mist might as well have never been called forth at all.

With binocular vision he looked through the fog to see what else but the four kids that had been guarding the gate bound and gagged in a row with the ninja who had previously been hiding in the trees standing before them. And not just standing there too, no, but mocking them as well from what he could see of their lip movements. But what really brought his piss to a boil was the fact that some of the ninja, including the one draped in white holding a huge sword, were holding their blades/sword to the throats of the two girls. Not to mention the fact that he picked up the word "rape" from reading the lips of the white ninja who wasn't wearing a mask over the lower half of his face like the others.

Telling a bound and gagged little girl that she was going to be raped. Strike two.

Now, don't misunderstand, pity was an emotion he felt only once in a blue moon, perhaps the only emotion he felt any _less_ than pity was regret or guilt. So suffice it to say that Tenmakei did _not_ pity these kids, not in the least. He could see into the minds of the men surrounding the children and he could read their foul, twisted and perverse thoughts. It would seem that being the most powerful psychic ever to exist was not something that went away with his shift to humanity and mind reading was just one of the perks of that power. And despite being able to read the thoughts of these men, he would not have felt a shred of guilt in letting them spill their blood all over the ground. As far as he was concerned, if you are too weak to even put up a fight, then you haven't earned the privilege of _life_. End of story.

But then again, spilling blood was not what these men had in mind for the two girls of the group.

Tenmakei looked at the faces of the two girls and saw that they were completely terrified. Tears streamed down their faces as sobs rattled their bodies with only the cloth gagging their mouths keeping them silent.

"_Sick fucks._" Tenmakei thought to himself. "_Those girls are only twelve or thirteen at the most and these sick bastards are thinking of doing shit like __**that**__ to them. Absolutely disgusting._"

Tenmakei turned his nose up at the thoughts of the men before him. No wait, not men, _dogs_. These men were nothing but slobbering mongrels who needed to be wiped from the face of the planet.

He glanced again at the children and saw that they were all wearing leaf headbands. Tenmakei sighed and mumbled quietly to himself, "I suppose it would reflect rather poorly upon myself if I were to allow _fellow leaf ninja_ to be brutally violated in such a way on my first day in the village."

Tenmakei looked back at the ninja group just in time to read the white clad ninja's lips as he talked to the pink haired girl, "Been a while since I fucked a corpse, you game?"

Being too sick of a fuck for words to describe. Strike three, they're dead.

Bodies were going to start hitting the floor _veeeeery_ soon now.

"_And that guy wearing white_," Tenmakei thought as he replaced his glasses and reached his right hand into the left side of his cloak, "_I think he'll be the first to go_."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Well, that was a short chapter egh? But, it was the best I could do considering my current state. Hopefully it will tide you over until I can get something else out.

Things that may seem inconsistent will be explained next chapter!

Peace.


	4. Ch4 The King's Arrival

**Sorry this took so long guys, lots of trips to the hospital and extensive physical therapy (to learn to walk again) for the past few months since my car accident have left me little to no time whatsoever to type. Good news is though; I can now use both hands! Yeah! I know that might not seem like a big deal to some, but believe you me, it's a big help. But good God, I've gained **_**sooooo**_** much weight! Lying around in my bed like a great white turd waiting for my bones to hurry up and heal. I can't **_**wait**_** to get out of the house and just go for a walk. I think I've gained like 50 lbs at this point. I'm seriously fucking disgusted with myself right now. Too much temptation over free ice-cream and a coddling mother will do that to you I guess… -.-'**

**Anyway, on with the story this fat tub of shit has been flaking on for the past few months! (I even wrote a little song for this chapter, Te-He X3. Yeah, it's a total rip off, but just read it and LOL.)**

_**You better watch out,**_

_**You'd best sleep light,**_

_**You'd better lock your doors tonight,**_

_**God-zil-la is comin' to town.**_

_**He's makin' a list,**_

_**And checkin' it twice,**_

_**Whose head will he put in a vice?**_

_**God-zil-la will make your pants brown!**_

_**He's trippin' out the children,**_

_**And getting drunk on booze,**_

_**He's coming to your house so he can sprinkle down some doom!**_

_**He's the creepy figure in the fog,**_

_**Puts laxatives in your eggnog!**_

_**He comes out when the sun goes down,**_

_**The guy who makes your children frown,**_

_**The equivalent of a psycho clown,**_

_**Will make love to your wife hands-down! **_

_**GOD-ZIL-LA IS COMIN' … TOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TOOOWWWWWN!**_

**(Roaring applause)**

**(Bows) Thank you, thank you…**

_**Disclaimer:**_** One day, when I have become dictator of America, I will have more than enough military power to conquer Japan, and then, my comrades, Naruto shall be mine! **_**MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**_** But until that day comes, and believe you me it **_**is**_** coming, I don't own Naruto or the mighty Monster King or **_**Santa Claus Is Coming To Town**_** … not just yet…**

"_**Ira furor brevis est.**_**" – Anger is but a brief madness.**

**Chapter 4: The King's Arrival**

_REWIND A BIT: BANDITS' POV_

The bandit who was ranked as second in command jumped back up to the top branch next to their white clad leader. He had just finished informing the rest of the men about their leader's plan and the group was ready to move at the boss's word. However he did find that he had one bone to pick with their leader…

"Sir," The Lieutenant said as he landed next to the boss, "The men have been informed and they are ready to move on your word."

"Very good." The Boss said with a smirk, "I believe that now would be the best time to…"

"Um, excuse me sir," The Lieutenant butted in, "But I have a question for you."

"What is it?" He grumbled.

"I was just wondering," The Lieutenant continued, "It has been over ten minutes since that patrol along the top of the wall was last spotted, our time is cut in half and I'm not sure if we can get in before we are noticed."

The Boss just rolled his eyes at the statement before saying, "Oh for the love of Kami! THEY ARE JUST GENIN! THEY ARE NO OBSTICLE WHAT SO EVER!"

"But sir…"

"NO BUTS!" The Boss bellowed, "THESE LITTLE BRATS HAVE ANNOYED ME TO THE BRINK OF INSANITY! WE ARE ATTACKING NOW!"

"BUT SIR!" The Lieutenant shouted, "If we attack now and kill those kids, then their bodies will be discovered in the next few minutes and the alarm will be raised! We'd all die!"

The Boss seemed like he was about to shout something but his words became caught in his throat. He stumbled over the right words for a moment but managed to calm himself enough to say through clenched teeth, "Fine, then we'll just knock their asses out and through them in the bushes."

Taking a few deep breaths he calmed himself further before saying, "And besides, these are merely children we are talking about here. It's not like we have been detected by anybody strong enough to pose a threat! Ha! We'll be just fine!"

"Um, sir!" A ninja called up from one of the lower branches, "I'm not so sure about that!"

"What are you blabbering about!" The Lieutenant shouted down to the man.

"One hundred yards down the road!" The man shouted up, "Someone's coming!"

"What!" The Boss shouted as his eyes shot down the forest path. Sure enough, about a hundred yards away was a lone figure walking straight towards their position. From what the boss could see, the man was draped in a large flowing black cloak of some kind and he was wearing a large hat which was tilted ever so slightly to the side, cloaking his entire face and shoulders in shadow.

"_SHIT!_" The Boss thought as panic flooded his mind, "_Who the hell is this guy!_"

"Sir," The Lieutenant said in a hush, "Who the hell is that guy, do you think he's with the Leaf?"

"The hell if I know," The Boss whispered back, "But this sure is inconvenient timing." "_This aught' a help us out a bit._" He thought as he quickly summoned up a cloud of mist while muttering to himself, "Kirigakure no Jutsu."

The mist that the white ninja had summoned quickly covered the area in a blinding fog which hid him, along with the rest of his men, from view.

"There," The Boss said turning to his Lieutenant, "I think that aught' a hide us for now. Listen, when that douche goes past the tree, I want you to jump down there and slit his thro-"

Fear.

Paralyzing fear.

The ninja Boss suddenly found himself gripped by a fear that he had never felt before in his life! He felt as though the hand of Death himself had taken a firm grip on his heart and had begun to squeeze. And from what he could tell, it was coming from that man down the road!

"Wha – What the fuck is this?" The Boss ninja mumbled in a low hush as he held a trembling hand between him and the man coming down the road.

"S- Shit!" The Lieutenant crocked out in a trembling voice, "W-where the hell did this guy come from?"

The Boss seemed to think for a brief moment before he quickly shot his head back around to the kids guarding the gate with rage contorting every muscle in his face as he did so.

"Those _brats_!" He growled, "They must have noticed us and called for backup!"

"Damn it all!" The Lieutenant squawked, "Then we have to fall back before more guys like this guy show up!"

"NO!" The Boss bellowed, "We've come much too far to be foiled now!"

"Well then what is it then that you suggest we do?" The Lieutenant growled with irritation at the stubbornness of his current employer.

The Boss' eyes darted back and forth as the gears in his head turned round and round, desperately searching for a solution to his current situation. Suddenly his eyes shot open and a grin cracked its way across his face as an idea came to him. "Just follow me," He said, "I've got a plan."

_APPROXIMATELY 8 SECONDS LATER: NARUTO'S POV_

"_How does this kind of stuff keep happening to me?_" Naruto wondered vaguely with a dull look plastered across his face.

One second he was casually napping with Sakura drawing in the mud nearby, the next all _hell_ broke loose. A group of forty some-odd ninja leapt out of a tree down the road and quite literally swarmed them. And before they could do a thing about it the four Genin, and even Akamaru, were bound and gagged and thrown to the ground with their backs against the gate.

"_Why didn't I go for the safer profession?_" Naruto wondered as he sat with Kiba growling through his gag off to his left. "_I just __**had**__ to be a ninja, didn't I? I couldn't have just gone along with being a dentist, or maybe a chiropractor or a construction worker or a dog handler working at the 'rabid pit-bull rehab center' or an Alaskan crab fisherman; you know, maybe something a little safer than this crap? But nooooooo! Of course not! I just __**had**__ to be a damn ninja … God I piss me off sometimes…_"

"Well you kids didn't put up too much of a fight now did ya?" The guy standing in the middle wearing white said in a mocking tone. "So tell me something," He continued turning to Naruto, "Who the fuck is that guy coming up the road, hugh?"

Naruto suddenly found himself in a world of pain as guy dressed in white quickly planted his boot into Naruto's chest, knocking him to the ground. Naruto cried out into his gag as the man applied more pressure to his chest, compressing his lungs and squeezing the air out of them. The others began to squirm under their bandages as they watched the pain that Naruto was in.

Sakura, instead of trying to remove her arm wrappings, focused on gnawing through her gag, figuring it wouldn't do any good to get her arms free, if she was just going to get jumped before she could reach the guy. She had been thrown at the opposite end of the line from Naruto, with Hinata to her right and Kiba to _her's_. So getting her hands free would have done little good, considering the men who surrounded them were intently watching and were ready to jump in a moment's notice.

"You called for backup didn't you, you little shits!" The Boss-guy continued as he applied yet more pressure to Naruto's chest. "I swear, the nerve of you little brats; pretending not to notice us and calling ahead to have your buddy down there," he gestured his with his hand vaguely down the road, "come up behind us! Who the hell do you _brats_ think you are! What! Do you think that you're smarter than us, than me!"

This time, he didn't just apply more pressure; he drew his foot back stomped down on Naruto's chest twice as hard. The sheer force of the impact was enough to send Naruto falling head over ass until he slammed into the gate a few feet behind him, knocking his gag off in the process.

All Naruto could do was give out a gurgled cry of "GGHYAAA!" before falling into unconsciousness.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Sakura bit down on her lip. She had meant to whistle to Guy's team for help just then, not flip her lid at the dude planting his boot in Naruto's chest. But it hadn't exactly worked out like that… She had just slipped, that's all. She couldn't help it if she had been scared for Naruto just then; sure, he was an annoying runt half the time, but he was still her teammate, damn-it.

"Can it bitch!" The Lieutenant growled before quickly kicking her in the face. The others pulled their weapons and stood at the ready to cut her down if she tried anything again.

Sakura fell back to the ground with a cry as a glob of blood came flying out of her mouth. She only had time to cough twice before a new gag was place over her mouth and she was rendered silent once again.

"Little wretch." The Boss mumbled as he strode down to the end of the line, pulling his large sword from its clip on his back as he did so. "You just made the biggest mistake of your life."

In an instant his sword was at Sakura's neck, it serrated edges leaving tiny cuts along her throat which were too shallow to even bleed. Some of the others moved in, poking their kunai into her arms and cheeks, ready to rip her apart at their Boss' word. Sakura was even forced to bite down on her new gag to stop herself from crying in the face of the pain the pointed weapons slowly being imbedded into her skin gave her.

"You're not too bright, are you missy?" The Boss said as he eyed her up and down with a little smirk on his face with none-too-pure thoughts running through his head. "Tell ya what, as a reward for being such a dumb cunt and crying out like that, how 'bout I pop your crotch in front of all your little friends, egh?"

Needless to say, Sakura was ready to shit a brick after hearing that.

"Hay Boss?" A random bandit said with a creepy tone in his voice, "I like the look of this little pretty too, how 'bout her?"

The Boss glances over. He liked what he saw. "Her too." He said with a snicker, and in less than a second, Hinata found herself in the same situation as Sakura. And that, needless to say, was not a good situation to be in...

Then things went to hell in a hand-basket in less time than it takes to hog-tie a hillbilly.

Sakura had had enough of the crap she was getting. So she took her chance when it presented itself. The second the group became distracted with checking out Hinata, she took the moment given to her to plant her foot in the Boss' knee-cap.

The popping sound his knee made as it came out of its socket was most satisfying.

"_Shannaro, mother-fucker._" Sakura thought with a smirk.

Sakura didn't waste a second of her time. With the momentum she gained from pushing off of the bandit Boss, she managed to not only simultaneously get herself the fuck out'a Doge with the bandits with the kunai pointed at her _and_ get a good three feet away from the psycho with the steak-knife sword but she _also_ managed to snatch a kunai from one of the drooling pedos with her tied hands.

"**Couldn't have done it better myself girl!**" Inner-Sakura cheered with a grin.

"_Yeah, but we don't have time to pat ourselves on the back for that one, we only have a second or two left at the most before we get caught again. Besides you are me_." Sakura mentally retorted.

"**Details, details … anyway, as you were.**"

It took her less that a second to slice through the rope at her wrists. (1/2 second gone). It took her another half second to reorient herself after she landed. (1 second gone). It took her another half second to lock her vision onto Kiba's wrist bindings. (1 ½ seconds gone). And it took her another half second to steady her aim. (2 seconds gone). Now all she had to do was throw the blade and Kiba would be free to get help.

If only the bandits had allowed her just one more second.

Sakura didn't have time to see the bandit Boss' boot coming at her … but she sure as hell felt it. Blood gushed from her nose and mouth as she felt the cartilage in her nose pop out of place along with some of her back teeth. The intense pain caused her vision to blur as tears of pain streaked down her cheeks and neck.

"YOU FUCKING _**BITCH**_!" The Bandit-Boss raged, grabbing at his popped knee to support himself while his right hand's grip on his sword tightened, "I – I –I 'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU WORTHLESS. LITTLE. WHORE!" He raised his sword.

Kiba's struggles against his restraints became suddenly frantic as he grew desperate to intervene. Hinata's Byakugan flashed to life as anger and tears now filled her empowered eyes. Akamaru peed a little bit. And Naruto? Naruto, still unconscious from the blow he had been dealt, lay uselessly on the ground; ironically, this was the first time Naruto had been truly useless to help Sakura out of a life and death situation when she truly, _truly_ needed it.

All their struggles, though, were for naught. Kiba simply ended up giving himself rope-burns around his wrists and all the glaring in the world wasn't going to do Hinata any good, and Akamaru just continued to piss himself. Such a great help, that little dog.

Sakura's eyes widened as she stared into the edge of the blade that was to be her death in mere moments. The blade glistened once in the sunlight. Sakura closed her eyes tight. The blade began to fall towards her. In those moments before the sword was to fall square in the center of her head, Sakura saw her life flash before her eyes. Not bad, she concluded, a bit average, but overall not too shabby.

She did have some regrets, though.

She wished she had made amends with Ino while she had had the chance. In fact, she wished she had never started that dumb feud with her in the first place. Sasuke was worth fighting for, but maybe not losing a friend like Ino over … maybe. And Sasuke. She wished she had gotten a chance with him, she wished she had been closer to him, she wished she had gotten that kiss on the bench that first day as Team-7 (she wished she had kissed a boy _period_ for that matter), she wished she had been able to stop him that night he left the village (and that he hadn't chopped her so hard in the freaking neck). Maybe if she had stopped him that night Naruto wouldn't have gotten so badly hurt.

Naruto.

Stupid, stupid, lovably stupid Naruto. She wished she had been nicer to him. Just plain nicer to the guy. Sure, he had been annoying, but his heart was in the right place. She wished she hadn't made him promise to bring Sasuke back. That had been very selfish of her, she realized in hindsight. It's not like she didn't want Sasuke back, the exact opposite in fact, but placing that burden on Naruto had been unfair of her. She even wished that she had taken Naruto up on one of his multiple, _multiple_ offers of a date to her, if only to be nice and to see how it would go.

"**He'd probably take us to that ramen stand he loves on the Lower West Side.**" Inner-Sakura added with a sad smile.

"_Yeah, and when we got there he'd offer us his favorite seat._" Sakura said back.

"**And we'd take it and say 'thank you'.**"

"_But we'd still be a little cautious of him; after all he's still Naruto._"

"**Yeah, and then he'd pick up the menu and look it over to be all nonchalant, even though he probably has the whole thing memorized.**"

"_Yeah, and then we'd order something that wasn't ramen, and probably the most expensive thing on the menu too, and he'd say 'Why aren't you getting ramen Sakura-chan?'"_

"**And then we'd crack him over the head and he'd whine and rub his sore spot.**"

"_And we'd say 'Because, you're buying baka' and then we'd giggle a little._"

The two separate personalities of Sakura giggled together one final time.

"_It's been good knowing you girl._" Sakura whispered her goodbye to her alter-ego.

"**Who better to know than yourself?**" Inner-Sakura said with a smile. She then sent her counterpart a final wave goodbye before fading into the recesses of Sakura's mind to await the end.

Sakura re-opened her eyes.

The sword had only moved an inch or so forward in the millisecond it took her to go over her entire life and say goodbye to her alter-ego. As the sword continued to inch forward Sakura realized that time was moving slowly for her. She tried to move. Nothing but her eyes worked. Sakura took one last moment to take in the world around her. The air smelled like blood, but that was just probably because of her broken nose. There was a refreshing breeze in the air which felt good on the skin. And her friends? Kiba was biting at his gag, Akamaru continued to pee, and Hinata had a nail file in her hand and she was almost half way through the ropes around her wrists.

"_Clever girl._" Sakura thought with a smile at the young Hyuga.

She caught a glimpse of Naruto's mop of blond hair lying on the ground facing away from her.

"_Good, at the very least he won't have to see this._"

Sakura sighed. She was ready. She looked back to the bandit before her, the sword was only an inch or two off of vertical with the bandit's arm fully extended.

"_God, how long is this going to take?_" Sakura thought with a mental sigh of exasperation. Her vision dropped down to her feet. She didn't want to see it coming anyway. But, just as her eyes were dropping to her feet, Sakura caught sight of something between the bandit's legs. **(1) **

Her eyes snapped back to the fog she could see through the gap between the bandit's legs. She could just barely distinguish it from the fog, but standing about fifty yards back, hidden in the thick summoned fog, stood a lone figure.

From what Sakura could see, it was most defiantly a human figure out in the fog, she might have even thought that it was one of the bandits hanging a little farther back if it hadn't been for the fact that his cloths seemed entirely different from what the others were wearing. She couldn't see much through the fog, but Sakura could defiantly tell that the figure was wearing a long cloak or cape of some kind, one of the largest hats she had ever seen, and (based on the two glowing orange circles she could see peering out from under the hat) a pair of sunglasses. One thing that struck her as odd, though, was that the figure's right arm was fully extended and pointing at the bandit standing over her.

"_Funny…_" She thought, "_I wonder why that guy is pointing over here?_"

She looked closer at the end of his hand and saw that he was holding something in it and, though she couldn't quite be sure, she thought that she saw a glisten of polished metal come from the object he was holding.

And then, with a sound more powerful than a crack of thunder, the bandits arm exploded at the elbow.

**End Chapter**

**I'm already half way through the second chapter. Will get it out ASAP! No multi-month wait this time!**

**Author's Notes****: **

**(1) No, not that you pervs… **

**P.S. – I AM LOOKING FOR A **_**BETA**_** FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER. WOULD ANYONE BE WILLING TO HELP?**


	5. Ch5 The King's Arrival 2

**Okay guys, I don't know if anyone read the little One-Shot that I put out over my little break or not, but if you did then you know why I haven't updated in so long.**

**I've been stuck in New York (Manhattan) for the last few months. My **_RICH-AS-ALL-HELL_** Uncle owns a condo out there and he paid me a couple THOUSAND dollars to go out there and house-sit for him for a couple of months while he did business in Europe. He's single with no kids so that why I got the job. The only thing that sucks is that I still have a broken leg from that car crash a few months back, so needless to say, hobbling around Manhattan by yourself on a pair of crutches is not too much fun. The city is great BTY, never been here before, and I'm loving it! **

**So that was great… anyway I haven't updated because I left all my notes that I took (whenever I get an idea for the story, I write it down so I don't forget) back home in Las Vegas, and I didn't want to mess up the story line by trying (and most likely **_**failing**_**) to remember what I wrote down and then jacking up the rest of the story. So I got my Dad to mail them to me, and here we are again!**

**So there you have it ... oh, and as I mentioned, a Beta would be really helpful to get Chapter 6 sooner.**

_**Adsum**_**: (Latin) – I am here…**

**Chapter 5: The King's Arrival 2**

_5 MILES AWAY AT THE MAIN GATE TO KONOHA_

It had been a rough morning for Team-Guy, to say the least. Running patrol across the top of the Village Wall wasn't as easy as it sounded, ya know? As per Tsunade's orders, they had run to and fro, from the East Gate (where Asuma's team, along with Shino, were stationed) to the Main Gate (Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma) then to the West Gate (Naruto, Sakura, Kiba, and Hinata [and later on forty-some-odd bandits and a _cursed-then-banished_ Monster King]) and so on. So needless to say, they _all_ had gotten tired of sprinting back and forth between the gates a _looooooooooong_ time ago …

Okay … well, maybe not all of them…

"YOSH! MY YOUTHFUL STUDENTS! WHY DO YOU REST? WE HAVE ONLY BEEN ON PATROL FOR 6 HOURS! COME! LET US CONTINUE ON WITH OUR RUN!"

Go ahead; guess who said that, I dare you.

Neji sighed. They had only been sitting for five minutes, after _hours_ of running in the cold night air and, more recently, in the early morning light. Even Lee had gotten tired after a certain point, and not even Guy's words of hard work and training could rally his prized student. So when Kakashi had called up to them with an offer to take a seat and have a glass of lemonade which had been brought out to them by Hokage's two assistants, all three Genin had leapt at the opportunity to take five … though they hadn't wanted to just take "five", _literally_.

Neji opened his mouth to speak.

"Guy-sensei, I think we all need a bit of a rest. You've been running us to the brink of exhaustion for the last few hours and I believe that it would be beneficial to us all if we were allowed some time to rest and recuperate. Regardless of Tsunade-sama's request that we, quote, "_run_" the wall, I believe it would be best if we rest for a bit longer and that after we resume patrol that a walking pace will be sufficient to satisfy the Hokage."

All became still. To say that all present atop the Wall were shocked would have been the understatement of the century. To think that _those_ words would come out of _his_ mouth … it was just unbelievable.

"L-Lee?" Tenten stuttered, "Did you just disagree with Guy-sensei?"

Lee took a sip of his lemonade before turning to Tenten, "Well, tell me that I am wrong."

"No, you're not Lee." Neji said, still stunned, "I actually think that that was the most sense that I've ever heard you talk."

Guy was beyond words, to say the least. Not to mention that even if speech had been within his capabilities, the fact that his lower jaw was currently glued the concrete surface beneath his feet probably would have hindered his speech capabilities.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the Wall, Kakashi couldn't help but smile behind his mask at hearing what Guy's most prized student had just said straight to his look-alike Jonin's face.

"Hmn. I really didn't think that kid had it in him." Kakashi hummed to himself with a glance up from his book at Guy's students. "Kudos, Lee."

"Looks like that kid," Asuma said through the cigarette he was attempting to light, "Just shook Guy's world to its foundations." He gave his lighter another few flicks, unsuccessfully trying to get a flame from it. "Damn thing must be out of gas." He mumbled under his breath before stowing the empty lighter and retrieving a box of matches.

"It's funny how Guy's whole world could be turned inside-out with so few words." Kurenai said with a smile as she took a sip of her own lemonade, "But all the same, I can't help but feel a little bad for him."

Her two companions turned and looked at her at the same time. They glanced at each other.

"Why?" They said in unison, turning back to her.

"_Stupid men._" Kurenai thought to herself with a tic in her eye.

"Well it's not like his day could get any worse." Asuma said as he blew out a smoke ring.

"I half-way wish that it had started raining right after you said that." Kakashi said with a smile.

Both Kurenai and Asuma couldn't help but laugh at Kakashi's little joke.

"Heh-heh-heh." Kakashi chuckled along with his fellow Jonin. "Yeah, but seriously. I doubt that much else could really go wrong today."

Just then, as if the gods had been tempted by Kakashi's words, a noise rang out which sounded like a crack of thunder. It echoed through the trees and rolled through the sky, sending birds to flight and causing the animals of the forest to flee with fright. Then all grew still and quiet.

All present at the Central Gate grew quiet. Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai all stopped their joking as their heads quickly turned around to their rights, to the west. They all remained silent, even going so far as to hold their breaths as they tensely waited for another sound. They were greeted with pure silence; yet maybe, just maybe, far off in the distance, there was the slightest echo of some sort of noise coming from way far off in the distance … screaming?

Suddenly, the sound came again, this time accompanied by the clang of metal on metal, then all grew silent again.

The three Jonin glanced back and forth between each other nervously, none daring to make a noise as even the sound of their resumed breath had drowned out that small, almost indistinguishable sound (screaming maybe?) which came from the west.

With no answer to be found among themselves, the three Jonin turned their gazes upward, to team Guy.

Atop the wall Neji, Tenten and Lee all stopped talking and turned their heads to the west, in the direction that the noise had come from. Even Guy snapped out of his Lee-induced-daze and looked off in the direction of the West Gate. It was a little over five miles to Konoha's West Gate, so Guy could just barely make out the cleared patch of trees around the gate over the curved top of the Wall. But fortunately for Guy, _he_ didn't have to rely on _his_ eyes. When it came to questions of the unknown (and at needing answers from across great distances no less) there was always one team-mate he could turn to … Kakashi would know, of course!

"Kakashi!" Guy whispered loudly down the Wall, "Psssst! Kakashi! What the hell was that!"

Kakashi's eye twitched.

"Guy! Psssst! Guy!" Kakashi whispered back.

"Yeah?"

"HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO HAS THE KID WITH THE BYAKUGAN HERE, NOT ME!"

"Geez –Louise, alright. No need to snap at me."

Kakashi's eye gave a large tic.

"Neji, would you mind, ugh…"

"Already on it, Guy-sensei." Neji said as his Byakugan flashed to life.

"Scan down by the West Gate," Kakashi said as he, Kurenai and Asuma landed atop the Wall next to Team-Guy, "Kurenai and I have our teams down there … well, at least most of them."

"Right." Neji said as he stood, moving from sweeping the inside of the Gate area to the outer portions and the forest. "Ugh-oh."

"What's _ugh-oh_?" Kakashi asked.

"There are forty-eight, no wait forty-_nine_ unidentified persons at the entrance to the West Gate." Neji said.

"WHAT!"Everyone yelled in unison.

"What's the status of our teams?" Kakashi said in a voice barely below a shout.

"Your teams are okay, but they are all tied down and immobilized." Neji said as his eyes surveyed the scene. "Three are down and unconscious, but otherwise unharmed; and there is one other who is pretty badly beaten, but is conscious. Fortunately, they are all alive."

"What of the unidentified men?" Kurenai asked.

"One is missing an arm," Neji said, "And is bleeding profusely. The others seem to be moving off from the gate and are, oddly enough, surrounding one man."

"Surrounding one of their own?" Guy said questioningly, "I don't understand. Why would they do that?"

Kakashi blinked.

"Ugh, I don't think that the guy the others are surrounding is with them."

"What makes you say that Kakashi?" Asuma asked, turning to face his fellow Jonin.

"Um, did the Hokage ever say _which_ Gate the "new guy" she summoned from the Fire Temple would be arriving at?"

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"Crap…"

Lee very politely raised his hand.

"Um… guys," Neji said with a hint of worry in his tone, "I think you might want to…"

"What is it Lee?" Guy asked, interrupting Neji.

"Guys, seriously, something's happ-"

"What _new guy _areyou speaking of?" Lee asked.

"Guys, for real here. I think some shit is seriously about to hit the fa-"

"Um … damn." Guy said with a sheepish grin. "Your tongue seems to have slipped there Kakashi. "

"Well, Lee…" Kakashi said, "I, well … um, you see the thing is…"

"Guys."

"Don't beat around the bush here Kakashi-sensei." Tenten said butting in. "I wa'na know what's going on here too."

"Guys."

"Now kids," Kakashi said with a gentle tone in his voice, "I know this is a gentle subject, however … um … oh, I just noticed what nice weather we're having! Isn't it lovely out today?"

"You're avoiding the subject Kakashi-sensei!"

"Guys!"

"Now Tenten, there's no need to be rude."

"But Guy-sensei, he's trying to dodge out of the situation!"

"**GUYS!"**

"WHAT?"

_**KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

Blue light filled their eyes and the group was forced to turn themselves away from the West-Gate as a massive shockwave of heat and debris slammed into them accompanied by a howling, super-heated wind. It took several moments for the air to clear but when it finally did, all present watched with wonder and shock as a mushroom cloud the size of a house steadily rose above the trees and dissipated in the air. But even as the cloud of smoke dispelled in the air they could still see a few crackles of what looked like purple lightning zapping between trees with a faint blue glow still filling the area in front of the Gate.

The group needed no words, all it took was a glance between the shinobi for them to race off to help their comrades. Though everyone knew, in the back of their minds, that the West-Gate was a little over five miles away, they all knew that even if they sprinted with all of their might, even if they ran as fast as they could, that the gate was still five to six _minutes_ away; they all knew that they might not make it in time, they all knew that, despite their efforts, some of their friends might die…

_BACK AT THE WEST-GATE: - WHERE WE LEFT OFF LAST TIME_

"GYAAA!" The bandit Boss screamed in agony, the mangled stump of his arm spurting blood and marrow from the bone as the majority of his arm (large sword still griped in hand) flew up in the air.

Sakura's eyes went wide with shock. One second ago she thought that she was about to die, but now (and she wasn't even exactly sure _how_) she had been snatched from death's grip. And some part of her knew, and again, she wasn't sure _how_ she knew exactly, that the man in the mist had been the one who saved her. But, again, she wasn't sure _how_, exactly, it had happened; not to mention the fact of that ear-splitting sound she had heard accompanying the severing of the arm. But she had bigger things to worry about at the moment…

Specifically the severed arm, and in particular, the gigantic knife-like sword still clutched in the dead hand, which was currently flying through the air above her head.

The blade had spinning end over end, about ten feet up in the air, since the arm still clutching it had been blown clean off its owner. It had been up there for about a second and was now, with gravity finally overcoming the force of the "arm removal", beginning to come back to Earth. Unfortunately enough, its current angle of decent was going to put the tip of that blade square in the center of Sakura's forehead. Hinata and Kiba had noticed this as well and were currently following the sword (and severed arm) with their eyes, hoping against hope that the sword wouldn't land where they thought it was going to.

Sakura could see this happening, but she felt herself unable to move. She had cut through her bindings before and the bandits around her, who were all still staring at their bleeding Boss in complete shock, had never had the chance to place new ones on her. Her arms and legs were free, she could move just fine, and yet she found herself frozen to the spot. It dawned on her that she was just too scared to move! Everything was moving too fast now, before when everything was moving in slow motion to her, she had had time to move, but now, with everything moving normal again, she simply froze up.

Way to show 'em how to be a ninja, girl, way to show 'em.

Just as Sakura became certain (for the umpteenth time that day) that she was going to die, the sound of thunder, the same one which had happened when the bandit's arm had been severed, met her ears again.

Out of nowhere a blazing streak of white light, moving so fast that her eye barely even registered its existence, shot out from back behind the bandits' heads and struck the sword in mid air. The clang of metal on metal met her ears as the white streak met the spinning sword before it rickashaied off into the woods to her left. To Sakura's complete surprise, the impact hadn't just sent the "white streak" flying off into the woods, it also changed the falling course of the sword.

This was all grand news for Sakura … but not so much for Kiba and Hinata.

The sword was rolling sideways, as opposed to end over end as it was before, and was now heading straight for the heads of the Team – 8 Genin. Needless to say, Kiba and Hinata were no longer worried about Sakura's well being and had become slightly more concerned with their own, but with their hands and feet bound they could do nothing but watch as the blade fell straight towards them … and landed sideways, straight on their foreheads.

The sword was long enough to strike both Kiba and Hinata at the same time, with the handle (and severed arm) hitting Kiba and the flat broad side striking Hinata. The sword bounced off of the pair and, with the severed arm finally losing its grip and flying off to the side, landed about three feet behind the line of Genin.

Kiba and Hinata had just taken a simultaneous hit from what had to be a forty pound sword, straight to the forehead none the less (and thankfully not by the blade), so it wasn't so surprising to Sakura when after only a few seconds of swaying back and forth both Kiba and Hinata keeled over backwards and blacked out.

Sakura knew that she had to check on them, after all (as Tsunade was teaching her) a med-nin's job was to ensure the survival of their team; this being beside the fact that they were her friends. Leaning over and reaching out for Hinata, Sakura placed her fingertips on the artery in Hinata's neck, checking for any signs of a pulse. She found a good, strong one. Luckily for Hinata, she was probably just going to have a concussion and a nasty bruise, the lucky girl.

She was about to move over to check on Kiba when she felt her headband slipped forward and came loose. She watched as the headband she had received on her graduation day fell foreword and past her vision before landing on the ground in front of her, in-between Kiba and Hinata. Her hair fell over her forehead and face, just like it had been when she was younger, and she was now looking out at the world through her bangs.

Great, just great. One more thing for her to worry about. Her friends. Her bangs. Her headband. Oh yeah, and the bandits, who finally seemed to be coming to their senses.

"Holy shit! Boss!" The Lieutenant shouted, finally snapping to his senses, "You okay?"

"NO! YOU FUCKING IDIOT!" He shouted in agony, gripping his bloody stump in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding, "GET THAT MOTHERFUCKER!"

"Who the hell are you talking about?" The Lieutenant questioned. "You mean the kids?"

"NO! YOU IDIOT! HIM! HIM! HIM! HIM! **HIM**!" The Boss shouted, franticly waving his head down the road.

It was then that the sound of footsteps on gravel met their ears. Everyone, both bandits and Genin, turned away from the Boss and faced down the road. Some eyes widened, some teeth were ground together, there were some small gasps mixed with some "what the hell?" 's, and some dropped jaws … but all were silent as the lone man that they had seen coming up the road before, the one who's mere presence had frightened them beyond all means, came strolling up the path and stopped not ten feet from them.

Sakura's eyes went wide.

It was the man she had seen in the fog! This man, whom she had seen not a moment before over fifty yards away was, in less than fifteen or twenty seconds, standing not ten feet from her. This man, her savior from certain death, looked like nothing less than a Victorian-era gentleman. Black suit and vest with a white undershirt and a neat collar, black cravat necktie with an intricate looking bow, black boots which went almost to his knees, long black overcoat with frill around the upper arms and back, black fingerless gloves with what looked like some sort of seal on the back (though she couldn't see from where she was), a _large_ black fedora-looking hat (seriously _large_ hat there, to her they looked like the brim went out almost to his shoulders), and what looked like an orange pair of glowing sunglasses. Though she couldn't be entirely sure on the sunglasses part, as her savior's entire face was cloaked in the shadow of his hat.

But more important than his looks was the weapon he was holding in his right hand.

In his hand he was holding what looked like a piece of metal, the likes of which Sakura had never laid eyes on before. It looked almost like a cross between a bent piece of metal tubing and a miniature ship's cannon. It looked to be in the shape of a right angle, almost like an "L" with his hand gripping the short part and the long part pointed down. His pointer finger was in some sort of ring on the bottom side of the weapon and was resting on some sort of hook inside of the ring. At the end of the weapon she could see white smoke coming out of a small hole which she hadn't noticed before. Whatever it was, it looked to be about 40cm long from his hand to the still smoking hole at the end, it also looked like it was made of polished silver or some other metal and must it have weighed several pounds because of it. **(1) **

One thing Sakura took note of was that there seemed to be large loopy words of some kind written down the length of it, she made a mental note to get a good look at that later. However, had Sakura had the ability to read the lettering, written in The Queen's English (using an intricate cursive font no less), she would have clearly seen the words "**Hellsing Arms .454 Casull AUTO**" and in much smaller capital-lettering just below that "**Hellsing Arms Weapon Industrials Co. Ltd.**" and if she had been looking even closer, Sakura would have seen that near the back of the weapon's length (stacked atop one another in four rows) were the even smaller words "**Long Slide / Automatic 10-inch / Caliber: Reconstruction / .454 Casull**". Luckily for her, Sakura was incapable of reading English, and was thus saved a massive amount of reading. **(2) **

Sakura looked back to her savior's face, in another attempt to see the face of the man who saved her life. And, yet again, all she could make out was the orange glow of his sunglasses and the shadow surrounding his face. She was disappointed, to tell the truth, that she couldn't see his face … and yet…

She had this odd feeling. She didn't know how she knew (and she wasn't sure if she liked it or not) but some part of her being was telling her that this stranger, whoever he was, was looking directly into her eyes. Through the shadows and the tint of his glasses, through her bands and her own blood covering her face, she felt that their eyes had met.

Then slowly, with everyone standing still as stone, the man from the fog lifted his free left hand up under his hat and took hold of his glasses. Sakura noticed that removing them had left all points of recognition on his face cloaked in shadow, making his face completely indiscernible. In one motion the man flicked his orange sunglasses shut before stowing them away in a pocket on the inside of his large black cloak. Then, just as slowly as he had reached for his glasses, he balled his left hand into a fist before raising the thumb and placing it under the brim of his hat. Applying pressure, he slowly tipped back the brim of his fedora, revealing his face from the shadow of his hat.

Ocean blue eyes beamed at her.

"Hay pinky, you and your buddies alive over there?"

"**Hubba, hubba****."** Inner-Sakura drooled.

_TENMAKEI'S POV_

"Hay pinky, you and your buddies alive over there?" Tenmakei said to the pink haired girl with the bangs covering her eyes as he stowed his weapon away back inside of his cloak.

All he got in response was a dumb stare and a blush.

"_Are you kidding me?_" Tenmakei thought with a blank look in his eye, "_How did that girl go from whooping bandit ass, to … this?_"

Eventually, he got a nod from her.

Tenmakei gave a scoff, "Then you might want to grab your buddies there and get back. Things ain't gonna stay pretty around here for much longer."

He got another nod.

"_Tch. Not the brightest bulb on the tree, is she?_"

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" The Boss bellowed, finding his voice through the rage and agony which clouded his mind, "YOU THINK YOU CAN DO **THIS** TO **ME**? YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH THIS?"

Tenmakei lowered the brim of his hat again before looking back to the man he had just de-limbed, "You have something to say, Dog?"

"DOG!" His voice cracked into a screech, "YOU CALL ME A FUCKING _**DOG**_!"

"Well unless you plan on giving me a name, _mutt_," Tenmakei grinned, "I don't see any reason to give you any more credit than that _pup_ you have tied up over there." He flicked his thumb in the direction of Akamaru.

"NAME! YOU WANT A FUCKING NAME!" The Boss roared, "HERE'S A NAME FOR YOU! I'M _**UEDA KOICHI**_ OF _THE SEVEN SWORDSMEN OF THE MIST _AND I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"Ueda Koichi, egh?" Tenmakei actually chuckled a little, "And you're of the Seven Swordsmen too, ugh? Your mother must have really hated you to have given you a name like Koichi. But you know what I find funny, Ueda?"

"WHY SHOULD I GIVE A FUCK WHAT YOU THINK IS FUNNY?" The bandit's boss Ueda yelled, "YOU'RE JUST A KID! A FUCKING TEENAGER WHO'S GOTTEN HIMELF IN **WAY** OVER HIS HEAD!" His voice lowered and he actually managed to grin a little bit, "Besides, you're going to be dead soon anyway." He turned to his fellow bandits, "Surround this asshole!"

The bandits of the Parasite Organization branched out, moving in wide sweeps on either side of Tenmakei, like the horns on a bull. Tenmakei just grinned and let them come. Only the Lieutenant stayed behind with the injured Ueda and their prisoners. The Lieutenant reached out his arm and helped Ueda to his feet. He really had to admire their boss, he had just had his arm removed and he was still able to stand, despite the blood loss.

"You okay?" The Lieutenant whispered to Ueda.

"_No I'm not fucking okay you retard_!" Ueda hissed back as he attempted to stand.

He happened to glance back and noticed that the pink haired girl had dragged her unconscious teammates, and even the dog, all the way back to and _behind_ a large rock to the left of the Gate. She was currently in the process of dragging the blond boy back to the others and he noticed that the other two, the Inuzuka (with his familiar nearby) and the Hyuga if he remembered correctly, were tucked into a small ditch behind the boulder, making for convenient and sturdy cover.

"Hay! Where the fuck do you think you're going, bitch!" The Lieutenant shouted.

"Forget 'em!" Ueda growled at his Lieutenant, "I don't give a fuck about them anymore!"

Tenmakei took a look around himself and saw that he was now completely surrounded. He also noticed that the girl had taken his advice and gotten out of the way. "_Good._" Tenmakei thought with a grin.

"Like I was saying, Koichi." Tenmakei continued, giving a small scratch to the side of his head through his hat, "I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something odd about your name."

"Like I give a damn what you think, kid." Ueda growled as he took his footing.

"Now that's not very polite of you, mongrel." Tenmakei said with a small scowl, "Calling me a child when you don't even know the first thing about me? How rude."

"YOU WANT TO FUCKING TALK ABOUT RUDE?" Ueda roared. "YOU MOCK MY GIVEN-NAME, YOU **USE** MY GIVEN –NAME AS OPPOSED TO MY FAMILY-NAME LIKE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO, NOT TO MENTION THAT YOU DON'T EVEN GIVE ME THE CREDIT OF AN HONORIFIC, AND YOU CALL ME A FUCKING **DOG**! YOU HAVE NO ROOM TO TALK ABOUT ME BEING RUDE!"

"Garbage like you does not _need_ a name." Tenmakei said bluntly, "And besides, I'm not much used to "honoring" anybody as of late, especially a _dog_ like you. I haven't spent too much time around your culture lately, I guess I've been spending too much time overseas, and as a result I'm not as fond of your honorific suffixes as I once was."

Ueda growled, "Why you impotent little-"

"So quit barking, _Baskerville_." Tenmakei hissed with a sneer. **(3)**

"BASTARD!" Ueda shouted and, ironically enough, sounding like a barking dog.

"Oh!" Tenmakei snapped his fingers, "I just remembered why I find your name so funny, Swordsman."

"LIKE I GIVE A DAMN!"

"You see there, _hound_, I'm not as young as I look." Tenmakei said with a grin.

"Ugh? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Ueda questioned with a wince. He didn't like this kid, not one bit, and the way this conversation was going wasn't putting his mind at ease either.

"Suffice it to say that I've been around the block a few times." Tenmakei grinned, his eyes briefely flashing orange, "And in my time, I've come across The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist before. I've fought some of them, in fact."

A scowl grew on Ueda's face; he knew where this was going, and he didn't like it.

"You know something, _boy_?" Tenmakei said with a pondering scratch to his head, "I remember a man by the name of Zabuza, _and_ I remember the wielder of Samehada, what was his name, Hoshigaki was it? I even recall a man named Raiga … ugh, I think. I'm not sure on that last one. I may be thinking of somebody else." He put his fist to his chin in thought, "Regardless," he shrugged, "I know one thing for a _fact_. The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist have _never_ held a man by the name of Ueda Koichi among their ranks. I know the Swordsmen of the Mist and you, sir, are _not_ one of those men. You don't have the _spine_ for it." He hissed that last part.

"L-like you know anything, boy." Ueda growled with a stutter in his voice.

Needless to say, most of the bandits that had surrounded Tenmakei were not exactly filled with confidence by the stutter in their boss' voice. Some were also getting pretty nervous to be standing up to a guy who had apparently gone toe to toe with a _real_ Swordsman of the Mist and was alive to tell the tail. Things were not looking all too good at this point, to say the least. They all drew their weapons.

"You're just a _punk_," Tenmakei growled with a scowl, "You're just a worthless little punk who thinks that buying an oversized meat cleaver at a fucking pawn shop makes you a ninja worthy of legend. You know what you really are? You're a pervert, a pedophile, and traitor to your home; you're scum of the Earth, a rat bastard who sells lives for profit, a thief and a liar. But you know what you are most of all? You're just a sniveling, gutless, pathetic, little … **Dog**."

"**KILL THIS MOTHERFUCKER**!"

All the bandits threw their weapons at once. A hail of shuriken and kunai came sailing through the sky towards Tenmakei, some with Exploding-Tags attached and one shuriken (from probably one of the most skilled among the bandits) divided into many thousands of individuals in the form of a Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, but all were aimed at ripping him limb from limb.

Needless to say, Tenmakei was not in any mood for that. Plus, he had a clever way of turning this attack on its head.

With no rush in his movements whatsoever, Tenmakei reached up and removed his hat. The pentagrams on the back of his gloves glowing red with power. His dark gray hair fell forward over his scarred right eye, hiding it from view. His eyes closed, he took a deep breath in before calmly exhaling. The ninja weapons flew in on their target, only inches away.

"_**Girls,**_" Tenmakei mentally communicated, "_**I need a little help**__**.**_"

Over the vastness of space and time, the Shobijin answered him, "_Go ahead. And Tenmakei, we're_-"

"_**It's okay, I'm sorry too**_**.**" Tenmakei smiled gently.

"**Shobijin approval has been granted. Unleashing Control Art Restriction Systems to Level **_**Five**_**, to Level **_**Four**_**, to Level **_**Three**_**. **_**Power**_." Orange eyes with black sclera flashed opened as Tenmakei smiled a grin filled with serrated and jagged fangs. His skin grew as gray as the pebbly scales on his true form, though the scales themselves did _not_ appear, and his gray hair became as black as the night. His disguise broke down as his sixteen-year-old form vanished, only to be replaced by the true body that the Shobijin had given him, that of a man in his mid to late twenties.

He gave a dark chuckle and an evil grin before he hissed a single word…

"**Pulse**."

And the world went white.

**End Chapter**

**So? What did ya think? TELL ME! TELL ME! TELL ME! TELL ME!**

**Oh! And sorry for the wait, if you read the top, you'll know why this chapter was late though…**

**Author's Notes****:**

**(1)- He's holding a gun, in case you didn't catch that. Though you're smart, I'm sure you got it. Oh, and for those of you who don't know, 40cm is equal to about 15 ½ inches. So the gun has an abnormally long barrel.**

**(2)- For those of you who know guns, you probably have an idea of how strong a .454 Casull round is. So for those of you who don't know too much about guns … you could blow the head off of a fully grown Grizzly Bear with a .454 Casull round. So, yeah. Not to be fucked with.**

**(3)- If you're British or a fan of the Sherlock Holmes books, you'll might get the "Baskerville Hound" line there. If not … Google, my friends, Google.**

**UNTIL NEXT TIME! (whenever that may be…)**

**Oh, and again, Beta help?**


	6. Ch6 The Bird of Hermes

"_**The Bird of Hermes is my name; eating my wings to make me tame.**_**" – The Ripley Scroll: Paragraph 4, Line 13**

**Chapter 6: The Bird of Hermes**

_The void of red light created by the Shobijin finally left his eyes after what seemed like hours of endless movement. _

_His long, muscular tail uncurled and stretched out, bringing the welcome feeling of freedom to his titanic form after untold hours – or days or weeks for all he knew – in the confined space that the Twins had used to transport him. _

_He stretched out his two massive arms and wiggled the four digits on each hand, receiving a crack or two in reward. He did the same with his legs, wiggling the four toes on both of his feet in tandem, and getting the welcome relief with the induced pops of his ankles and toes. He twisted his back left and right, the bone-colored dorsal plates running down his back in three rows rocking side to side with his movements, allowing even more satisfying pops to come with his movements. He cricked his thick, saurian neck from right to left and, at long last, regained an acceptable level of comfort with the realignment of his neck-bones with his spine. _

_Godzilla let out a sound half way between a roar and a sigh of relief._

_After an endless amount of time in that little space created by the Cosmos, he had finally reached the end of the line. He had finally reached the "Hell" which the Twins had promised him to suffer in human form and, as his burning orange eyes scanned the world around him, the mighty Monster King came to the conclusion that __**1)**__ He wasn't human, he was still his same old self. And, more importantly, __**2)**__ He was in the absolute middle of nowhere…_

_Literally._

_Godzilla wasn't even sure he was "in" nowhere … he was __**just**__ nowhere. There was literally __**nothing**__ but blackness around him for, like, __**ever**__. In __**every**__ direction. Even __**down**__. There was __**nothing**__ holding him up … __**at all**__. He was just floating in … nothing. At least when he had been in Dimension Tide's … well … "dimension" … he could feel the wind moving, he could see bits of debris and stuff from the city floating past, he could hear the suction of the vortex howling through the void … but here, wherever __**here**__ was, there was just __**nothing**__. There was also one more tiny issue…_

_There was no __**air**__ in this place._

_Oh, great …_

_**END - FLASHBACK**_

Tenmakei's orange and black eyes flashed open.

The cursed Monster King looked at the world around him as reality came snapping back to his senses. The burned and mangled corpses of the bandits, who had had him surrounded, now lay scattered across the battlefield, some hung from the branches of singed trees, others simply littered the ground … or rather, what was left of them. Their own weapons, thrown at him in an attempt to end his damned existence, had been rebounded upon their owners by the force of the _Nuclear Pulse_ he had unleashed to defend himself, mangling them beyond recognition as an added insult to the injury created by the Pulse, which would have cooked them alive in their own skin had their weapons not mercifully cut them down before the pain of being burned alive had set in.

Tenmakei looked down at his hand; the sight of gray skin, the color of volcanic ash, on his fingers and long curved talons, in the place of fingernails, met his eyes. He flexed it open before closing it into a fist, being careful not to pierce his palm with his claws. He turned his fist over and, narrowing his glowing orange eyes, beheld the burning red pentagram seal imprinted upon the back of his glove.

He had unleashed the Control Art Restriction Systems to Level Three, thus giving him the powers he had in his true form. He needed the Shobijin's permission to go that far, it was one thing he could resent about having the Hellsing Family's seal in place of the Shobijin's. He could, however, use Level Five and Level Four of his own accord.

That was a plus, at least.

But going as far as he had just gone did come with its drawbacks. The visions of the past he sometimes had when he used Level Three or beyond, being one example. The more power he used, the stronger and more realistic the visions would be. Remembering, or rather re_living_, the past in such a way was, to him, just one more annoying and tiresome fact that he had to live with when using his power.

His disguise, and the fact that it couldn't hold up in the face of all that power, was another.

Normally, when entering a life in which the Shobijin had a job for him to do, he would use the body that the Twins had made themselves, I.E. his current form, minus the monster-like qualities. He would look like a man in his mid to late twenties, and would remain that way until the job was finished, no matter how many years or decades – even over four centuries for one job, if he recalled – it may take, but in this case he had had to take on the guise of a sixteen year old boy, so that his background story would check out.

And if that story was to pan out, it wouldn't do well to be seen in his current state.

Tenmakei breathed out slowly, releasing his grip and letting his hand relax. The change was almost instantaneous; his talon-like claws receded back into his fingertips as they changed back into normal fingernails; his jagged fangs cricked back into his jaw becoming normal teeth again; his black hair shortened and became slightly lighter to take on its normal dark-gray color; his gray skin lightened and became normal once again; and lastly were his eyes, again becoming deep ocean blue with normal whites.

Though still looking like a man in his twenties, he had at least removed the monstrous features which would have likely gotten him chased by an angry mob with pitchforks and torches, you know, the whole cliché "Frankenstein" shebang. _That_ scenario was, needless to say, to be avoided.

He was about to replace his disguise and go to check on the kids, who were still hiding behind a big rock off to the side of the gate … not that he could really blame them though, when he noticed movement in the singed brush just in front of him and off to his right. He could smell blood and burnt human flesh coming from the direction of the noise and, as a result, he had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen and was ready for the attack.

What he was _not_ ready for was when the entire world around him began to, literally, melt. Burnt trees and bushes began to melt together; the scorched and mangled corpses scattered across the ground began to meld with the dirt on which they laid; and the gigantic green Gate and the towering village Wall began to spiral together into a great grayish mass. The whole effect looked almost like a bad remake of Salvador Dali's "Melting Clocks" painting.

He arched an eyebrow and smirked in amusement.

Thorny vines sprung up from the ground near Tenmakei's feet and began to wrap themselves around and around his legs before sliding up to entangle his torso and arms, forcing them up against his body, making him stand rigid as a post. He did not flinch as the thorns shredded his cloths and cut deep into his flesh. Strangely enough, however, no blood oozed from the wounds.

Tenmakei grinned and gave a chuckle with a thought, "_Interesting Genjutsu we have here, interesting to say the least._"

Meanwhile, outside the confines of the Genjutsu, the bandit Lieutenant came stumbling out from his hiding place in the singed bushes along the side of the road. The entire right side of his face and upper body was burned almost past the point of recognition, showing how he had turned away from the blast as he ran. How he had had the time, or had been lucky enough, to get out of the blast-area before it became an inferno of blue fire, one could only guess.

"Hou hastard," The Lieutenant growled, his voice distorted by the burns to his face, "I'll hucking hill hou hore hwat hou've hone!" ("You bastard, I'll fucking kill you for what you've done!")

He released the Ram-Seal he was holding his hands in. His burnt right hand went up and cupped his face, trying to add comfort to the agonizing pain. With his left, he reached into his side pouch and retrieved a kunai, murder shining in his eyes as he staggered towards his paralyzed prey. The Genjutsu he had placed on the kid, who he now noticed didn't really look like a kid anymore, kept him from moving as he moved in close for the kill.

"Honce I'm hone hif hou," The Lieutenant continued, "I'm honna hill hat hastard Header hof h'ours hor hucking h'is hall hup! Hen I'm honna hill hose hids! Hen, honce hI'm hone hwhiff hat, hI'll hee ho hit hat his hwhole hillage hurns hoo he hround!" ("Once I'm done with you, I'm gonna kill that bastard Leader of ours for fucking this all up! Then I'm gonna kill those kids! Then, once I'm done with that, I'll see to it that this whole village burns to the ground!")

He inched closer to where he was now within a foot of Tenmakei, close enough to simply stick out his arm and run him through without even stretching out his arm the whole way. It was now that the Lieutenant realized just _how much_ the teenager who had attacked them had changed. He thought he had seen the kid become something _else_ for a second there, looking like he had gray skin and black hair and fangs and claws and glowing eyes and all this crap that made him look like a frikin' _monster_, but now that he was up close he could see that the kid wasn't really a kid at all! This was some dude in his twenties, not a teenager with an extreme ego or anything, but frikin' adult!

The Lieutenant concluded that this kid … er, _guy_ … must have been using a Genjutsu to make himself look younger, maybe to make his (ex) Boss underestimate him, or something to that effect. It must have been one hell of a Genjutsu, though. Before, when he had looked like a kid, the Lieutenant had guessed that they were about the same height, somewhere between _six foot_ and _six foot two_, but now that he saw this guy as he really was the Lieutenant guessed that the guy was really between _six foot five_ and _six foot seven_! This guy was a _goliath_! He was _easily_ the biggest guy that he had _ever_ seen! Damn, he was glad this guy couldn't move! But regardless of the guy's change in size, the Lieutenant still had business to attend to… namely, killing the bastard for burning half his face off!

Unseen by the bandit, the Pentagram seal on Tenmakei's gloves began to glow a fiery red.

From the seal on his right glove, what looked like a _black_ _mist_ began to leak from the red lines of the seal and creep its way up and under the sleeve of Tenmakei's cloak. After a few seconds of this the black mist stopped leaking from the seal and the red glow on the Pentagram died down, the only noticeable result of all this being that a rectangular bulge had appeared along the length of his forearm under the sleeve of his cloak; all this going unseen by the Lieutenant.

"Hile hor hthe hirdie, hou hucking hastard!" The Lieutenant growled through his burns. ("Smile for the birdie, you fucking bastard!")

He inched forward, murder burning in his eyes, his blade sharp and at the ready. The grip of his left hand upon the kunai tightened, readying to strike at the heart of his victim. He raised his arm, focusing his one good eye just below the knot in his necktie, and struck home.

Tenmakei's jaw went slack for a moment before blood began to stream out of his mouth and down his chin … **black** blood.

Tenmakei's frozen body shuddered, his eyes rolled back, blood ran down his neck and stained his white-collared shirt black as oil, and his body fell backwards onto the ground. His massive frame hit the ground with a hard _**thunk**_. Thick, black blood gurgled up from the wound in his chest, the kunai still stuck firmly in place where the Lieutenant had planted it.

The Lieutenant stood there with a mix of shock and disgust painted on his burnt face as the thick oil-like substance splattered onto the ground and stained his victim's clothes. It wasn't just that the blood was black, like _ink_ black, but that it was thick, too. It looked boarder-line _coagulated_, it was so thick.

"Hwat hteh huck har hou, hreak?" The Lieutenant whispered, a faint tone of terror echoing in his voice. "Hnot hat hit hatters hany hore, hom ho hink hof hit. Hnow, hwhere har hose hids?" ("What the fuck are you, freak? Not that it matters any more, come to think of it. Now, where are those kids?")He turned back to the Gate and, producing a new kunai from his pouch, began to limp slowly back towards where he saw the kids hiding.

As he limped back, the Lieutenant couldn't help but wonder what had happened to his would-be boss, whom he had left for dead just before the explosion of blue fire had covered the forest in flame. Had he somehow escaped? Probably not … though he was a superior ninja. Maybe. Could he be hiding in the bushes, waiting to take a swing at him? He was missing an arm and was probably just as badly burned as himself. No, defiantly not. Was he among the dead? Most likely. Yeah, that was probably it.

Regardless … where the fuck were those kids?

_**MEANWHILE**_

"_Damn,damn,damn,damn,damn,damn,damn,damn,damn,damn,damn!_" Sakura's mind was going ape shit over what had just happened. That guy, the who had just saved her ass, he was dead! So easy? How! After everything he had done! To get caught by a Genjutsu and just stabbed dead! After saving her like that! After killing all those men! After what he had done! DAMN IT! Oh God, what _had_ he done? He had set the whole world on _fire_, as far as she was concerned! Crap! He could have killed _her_ too! And her friends! And even Kiba's damn dog would have been fried, if she hadn't grabbed them all and ducked behind the big rock she was leaning against! Damn it, they owed her big-time!

"**Girl, you can't keep thinking like this! You're gonna give us both a stroke if you keep it up!**" Inner-Sakura called out in a desperate attempt to keep her _outer_ personality from giving them both blood on the brain.

She took a few deep breaths. "_Okay, I can do this. Most of them are dead … and unless half the village is in a coma, help is probably on the way. It's just one guy. One burnt up bastard … who just took out a guy capable of setting the whole forest on fire. Great. All I have to do is hold him off until backup gets here. Yeah, that's all. Just hold him off. And stay alive. And keep these guys all alive too. And don't get raped … yeah, that's pretty high on the list too. And, let's see her, what else? And … ugh, and ... why the hell are my bangs in my eyes?_"

Sakura reached up and patted the top of her head, just now remembering that she had lost her headband back when she was checking on Kiba and Hinata. She scowled briefely, before shaking her head to clear her thoughts. She gulped. She didn't have time to be thinking about this sort of crap right now. Things weren't looking too good and she needed to stay focused.

She opened her senses and listened to the world around her. She heard the crackle of scattered flames as they burned through parts of the surrounding forest; she could feel the residual heat left on the rock from the fireball which had killed most of the bandits; she could smell the aroma of death and burnt flesh which permeated the air; she heard the shallow breaths of her friends as they lay unconscious on the ground near her; she felt her heart beat increase and the blood flow through her; she heard the faint squawk of a distant crow-call; and, most importantly, she could hear the crunch of gravel underfoot as the bandit Lieutenant came stalking towards her.

"_Stay calm, stay calm._" Sakura said to herself again, pulling a kunai out of her pack. "_When he comes around the side of the rock, just get him. Don't think about it, just do it. And if that fails, just hit him with a good punch. Like Tsunade-shishou said, 'Send 'em flying' … or however she put it._"

Sakura readied herself for what was to come, steadying her balance by adjusting her footing and slowing her breath to maintain focus. She didn't have time to mess with her hair and get it out of her eyes, she was just going to have to ignore it and hope for the best.

She heard the bandit's steps in the gravel as he inched his way closer. He must have injured one of his legs because from what she was hearing he seemed to be walking with a limp. First there was a _**CRUNCH**_ of the good foot hitting the gravel, shortly thereafter followed by a _**CRSHHHHHHH**_ as what Sakura assumed to be the bad foot was dragged in the gravel behind the bandit.

He was getting closer, Sakura could tell by the sound…

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

Sakura tightened her grip on her kunai.

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

She wet her lips and bit her lower lip in anticipation.

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

The bandit's shadow appeared around the edge of the rock.

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

She held her breath and tensed her muscles.

_**CRUNCH – CRSHHHHHHH!**_

"**NOW!**" Inner-Sakura screamed at her.

_**CRUNCH – CRSHH-**_

A second shadow appeared behind the bandit's.

_**SHINK**_**! **

The sound of metal being unsheathed met Sakura's ears.

"Hwhat hthe he-"

_**CHRLINK!**_

"_GRLAG_!"

The sound of metal piercing flesh and the muffled gargle of a dying man were quickly followed by a splatter of blood landing on the ground by the bandit's shadow.

"_What the hell?_" Sakura thought to herself as what was happening around her began to fully sink in. She tightened her grip on her kunai and took a deep breath as she inched towards the edge of the rock. Then, as tentatively as any person could, Sakura peeked her head around the corner of the rock.

The kunai fell from her hand and clanged loudly on the rocky ground.

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

The pair of spring-loaded wrist blades struck home, slicing through the flesh and the bone like they were wet rags. One of the blades had gone through the bandit's left lung, causing it to begin to fill with fluid, with the other slicing through the bottom edge of his heart, fatally wounding the man.

Pain wracked the Lieutenant's body as the parallel blades simultaneously exited the front of his chest, splattering blood and bone fragments across the ground in front of them. The bandit, paralyzed by shock and pain, could only let out a rasping gargle as he felt the life begin to flow from his veins.

The Lieutenant, barely able to move even his neck, managed to find the strength to look behind him, to see who the man was who had delivered his death blow. What he was expecting to see, even he wasn't sure; perhaps his former Boss, Ueda, had come back to finish the job, maybe reinforcements had arrived, or maybe even one of the kids had managed to sneak around behind him and get him like this, but one thing the Lieutenant _was_ certain of was the fact that he had _not_ been expecting _him_.

Tenmakei, his hat firmly back in place and with glowing orange eyes fixed on his victim, stood behind him … completely unharmed and very much alive. He had retaken his teenage form and now stood at an equal height to the Lieutenant, lacking the giant frame he had when he looked like a man in his mid twenties.

Had the Lieutenant been able to see behind himself, he would have seen that the sleeve of Tenmakei's right arm had been rolled up past the elbow to reveal what looked like some sort of high tech device strapped to his forearm. It was rectangular and seemed to be made of some sort of dark-iron like material. It ran almost the full length of his forearm, from just behind the wrist to pretty close to the elbow, and was strapped to his arm by two metal rings which clamped around his arm. The back had an almost computer-like pad on it, with four tiny screens and a sliding switch just beneath them. But what really made the device special were the two eighteen inch long serrated spring-loaded blades coming out of the front of their wrist-mounted holster; the same two blades which, need not be said, were currently jutting out of the Lieutenant's chest.

"H-hou?" The Lieutenant gargled. ("Y-you?")

"Who did you expect?" Tenmakei said as he stared into the dying man's eyes. "The Boogeyman?"

"H-h-hhowe?" He whispered. ("H-h-how?")

"Not for you to know, _mortal_." Tenmakei growled, a stern look suddenly etching itself onto his face, before he gave his wrist-blades a firm twist, pushing them deeper into the Lieutenant's chest. Blood flew from the bandit's mouth and rushed down his chin, saturating his black clothes through. He lost his footing and, with the muscles in his legs no longer being able to bear his weight, fell back into his killer. Tenmakei, for his part, managed to both step out of the falling man's way and remove his wrist-blades from the bandit's chest.

The blades, having fulfilled their purpose, automatically sheathing themselves back into their slots.

The Lieutenant's limp body flopped to the ground, his dying eyes glaring back into the orange orbs belonging to the man who had been his undoing. He hated him, with every fiber of his being, he hated the man. But, despite his hatred, he still felt as if he needed to ask him one final question.

"H-h-hwho hare hou?" The Lieutenant asked. ("Who are you?")

He leaned in close, so as only the dying Lieutenant could hear him, and whispered, "In the sea without lees/Standeth the Bird of Hermes/Eating his wings variable/And maketh himself yet full stable./When all his feathers be from him gone/He standeth still here as a stone/Here is now both white and red/And all so the stone to quicken the dead./All and some without fable/Both hard and soft and malleable./Understand now well and right/And thank you God of this sight."

The Lieutenant looked up at him, eyes wide with confusion, almost begging for him to explain.

Tenmakei answered him by finishing the rhyme, "The Bird of Hermes is my name; eating my wings to make me tame."

A thousand questions remained in the eyes of the dying Lieutenant, but no time remained for him. With a shudder and a rasping breath, he was gone. Tenmakei reached up and closed the man's eyes and, removing his hat, he bowed his head in respect for the dead. Though in life the Lieutenant had been foul, his _being_ was now of a higher order than all the people living on the Earth and, as such, was to at least be shown respect.

Death. Something Tenmakei had dealt to millions upon millions of people, yet something he himself could never experience. On some level he couldn't help but envy the dead, for they received the long sought after relief which Tenmakei so desperately craved.

"_Damn the dead, for all of their privileges._" Tenmakei thought with a scowl.

Having shown his respect for the dead, Tenmakei stood from his kneeling position and replaced his hat upon his head, ready to continue on with his mission in this world. He turned his attention back to his wrist-blades, stained red from the blood of the dead man at his feet.

They were special, he remembered, being able to withstand the corrosive blood of the ultimate prey. He was the first _human_ to earn the right to use these blades, though the _human_ part could be up for debate. He remembered that he had never needed to sharpen the blades, not once, not since he earned the blades by hunting the Queen Mother in her own hive … fifteen centuries ago. The first "human" to do so.

He'd lost track of the _exact_ number of years and lifetimes, but fifteen hundred years (for him, at least) was close enough to count.

Tenmakei knew it was time to move on, after all, matters were still left unattended to. So, flexing his right hand into a fist, the Pentagram Seal on his glove began to glow bright red again. Instantly the wrist-blades began to glow the same hellish red as the seal on his gloves and, with the power of the seal flowing through them, they changed back into the black mist which had spawned them.

The black mist swirled around his arm for a moment, hovering with what seemed to be a sentience all its own, before streaming back into the seal and vanishing within the red lines of the pentagram. His wrist blades gone, Tenmakei rolled his sleeves back down into their normal position, a small smirk on his face showing the pride he held in his new summoning technique.

"Decent enough at Genjutsu," Tenmakei said with a grin, addressing the corpse at his feet, "But a real disappointment, overall."

_**CH–CLANG**_

The sound of mental rattling against stone met his ears.

"_Hm, so she __**did**__ managed to survive the Pulse._" He thought.

Reaching back into his coat, Tenmakei retrieved his circular orange sunglasses and placed them back on his face before turning back to face the girl.

She was less impressive up-close, he concluded. She was shorter than he thought, for one, coming up to a little under his shoulder at the top of her head. Then again, he _was_ in his teenaged form, so he imagined that she would seem even shorter when he stood at his true height.

Her face was almost completely covered by her ridiculous pink bangs (seriously, he couldn't even see her eyes!) not to mention that what he _could_ see of her face was beginning to swell up from all the hits she had taken. Even her shirt was covered in blood, whether it was from her own broken nose or the de-armed Ueda, he couldn't be sure. Not that it really mattered, anyway.

He opened his mouth to ask the usual questions, (You okay? Are your friends still alive? That looks nasty, you should get to a hospital. Yutta, yutta, yutta…), when a thought struck him. He had just wondered if the blood on her shirt was from her nose or from Ueda's severed arm. Ueda…

He glanced around at the fried corpses surrounding him.

"_One, two, three, four, five…_" Tenmakei began counting the bodies off to himself, "_Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one … thirty-one out in the open._"

At a whim his eyes began to glow their natural orange, giving his vision a Byakugan-level boost and adding a glow to his sunglasses. With his eyes now able to scan through the burning shrubbery and trees surrounding him, Tenmakei continued with his body count.

"_Thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four…_" He now began to count them off with his pointer finger too, "_Forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven…_"

Tenmakei narrowed his eyes. "Hmm.."

"You – you're alive?" Sakura said, taking a step out from behind the rock, "But … but how? I saw you die. Stabbed. Right in the heart! And you don't, I mean, how did-?"

"Listen, kid," Tenmakei said, interrupting her, "I know that whatever you're trying to blubber out is important and all," Sakura scowled at him, "But suffice it to say that **ONE)** I heal fast, **TW-**"

"But you got stabbed in the _heart_!" Sakura said, cutting him off, "And even your clothes are intact where the blade-!"

"**TWO)** …" Tenmakei growled, "I don't like being interrupted. And, most importantly, **THREE)** We have one slight issue to deal with before we can play 20 questions, okay?"

"Issue?" Sakura asked, "What issue could there possibly be?"

Tenmakei didn't miss a beat to answer her, "When I first got here, there were forty-_eight_ of these bandits. I only count forty-_seven_."

"So, there's one left?" Sakura asked.

"Your grasp of the obvious is inspiring." Tenmakei said in a dead-pan tone. "But more importantly, do you notice anything special about all of the corpses here?"

Sakura looked around at all of the bodies. When their weapons had rebounded on them, the majority of the bandits had been mangled … horribly, horribly mangled. Some were missing limbs, others had been decapitated, and still others had been split in half and had their intestines hanging out; not to mention that they were all burnt to a crisp on top of it. Sakura hadn't seen a corpse since her first A-ranked mission and even then Zabuza and Haku had at least been _intact_, so to speak. This was just _way_ too much for her, _way_ too fast.

She tucked her head back behind the rock.

_**BLEUUUH**_

Her stomach couldn't take it.

Tenmakei couldn't help but roll his eyes. "_So much for trying to teach her a lesson._" He couldn't really blame her though, she _was_ just a kid.

"Their arms." He said, pointing out the answer he was looking for, "They all have their right arms mostly intact. Unlike _that_ arm, back there." He thumbed back over his shoulder.

She looked back to where he was pointing. Up against the Gate, near where the two doors met, were the burnt remnants of Ueda's severed arm with the sword it had been holding lying only a few feet away. Finding the strength to look back at the fried bodies, Sakura found that there were in fact a couple missing their right arms, but none that were a match to the Bandit Boss' arm.

"So the Boss," Sakura said, wiping a bit of vomit off her chin, "I think … I mean … is he still alive?"

Tenmakei gave a little smile, "Once again you display your firm grasp of the obvious."

Sakura scowled at him.

Ignoring the hole that Sakura was attempting to burn into the back of his head with her glare, Tenmakei focused more of his energy into his eyes, causing his pupils to dilate and the orange of his iris to begin to burn red. His vision expanded well beyond the normal range of a man, even coming in over that of an average Byakugan user, allowing him to take in an area over a mile in diameter through the thick undergrowth and trees of the surrounding forest.

He perceived all as one.

He managed to see some of the village behind him, even through the thick concrete wall; he could see that the civilians were in a panic over the sudden explosion of the Pulse; he saw how the ANBU Black-Ops patrols were swarming towards his current position as alarms rang out across the village; he saw a small band of Genin and Jonin running across the top of the Village Wall due east of his position; and (more importantly) he saw a burnt up, one armed bandit boss limping his way away from Konoha as quick as his legs could carry him.

"_You sneaky little bastard._" Tenmakei thought with a grin, "_It was a miracle that your little underling managed to escape the blast, but you're missing an arm and a lot of blood to boot! Heh, heh, heh. Looks like I underestimated you, Ueda. I won't be making the same mistake again._"

Tenmakei reached back into his cloak and retrieved the Casull from its holster, the silver surface of the weapon shining in the light of the dawn as he withdrew it and it up for a brief inspection.

"That's the thing that I saw before!" Tenmakei heard from behind him, "What is it?"

Tenmakei rolled his eyes at the girl. "_Great. She starts asking questions right when I'm lining up the shot._"

"Well since you're _so_ curious, it's called a _gun_." He said to her, "It fires 13mm explosive steel rounds, alloyed with pure Macedonian silver. Armor piercing, high velocity, extremely powerful. A normal man would have his arm broken just from the kick-back of this beauty. But this is **my** weapon, there's nothing else like it anywhere in the world, and I'm damn well the only person on the planet who can wield the Casull as she is _meant_ to be wielded." A toothy grin cracked across his face. He braced the gun against his left forearm and, flicking his glasses down to the tip of his nose, and lined up the sights against the back of Ueda's head. "And, believe me when I say this, kid, the Casull has killed more people than have _ever_ lived in the Hidden Leaf Village."

"Wha-what are you talking about?" Sakura stuttered, unsure as to whether or not she believed such a weapon could even be forged, let alone kill the number of people that this guy was claiming it had, "What are you even aiming at? I don't see the target."

"I do." Tenmakei said in a low voice, his eyes flashing to an even darker red as his vision focused in on Ueda. "One kilometer ahead." He squeezed the Casull's trigger.

Inside of the gun, its mechanical components sprung into action.

The hammer flew forward, striking the priming cap at the back of the Casull's specialized round, igniting the gun-powder within the bullet's casing, sending the silver round spiraling down the barrel three times faster than the speed of sound. With a flash of fire, and a loud thunder-like _CRACK_, the silver bullet flew out of the barrel with a streak of fire trailing behind it before vanishing into the forest after its target.

"_Meeep_!" Sakura chirped in surprise, the loud crack of the gun having startled her.

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

A little less than a mile down the road Ueda Koichi, the burnt and beaten ex-leader of the recently decimated Parasite Organization, was staggering his way away from the Hidden Leaf Village as fast as his burnt and bleeding legs could carry him.

"Damn that bastard." Ueda growled, his remaining hand grouping at the stump where his arm used to be, "I'll kill him. I'll fucking kill him. If it's the last thing I ever do, I swear I will kill that little prick!"

It had been pure luck that had allowed him escape that blast, he knew that. If he hadn't jumped behind his ex-lieutenant when he had, he knew that he would have been burnt too badly to escape the area. It was as simple as that, and it proved a philosophy which Ueda had held for most of his adult life, _it was better to be lucky than good_.

Though, to be honest with himself, Ueda knew it didn't hurt to have a little of both on your side.

"Damn him." He mumbled to himself as images of Tenmakei flashed through his head, "That prick thinks that just because I lied to a bunch of thugs about being a member of the Seven Swordsmen, that I'm just a _dog_. Well, he can go to hell! I've been a ninja my entire life! Just because I'm not a legend, doesn't mean that I'm not good! I'll show him! I'll show them all! Just give me half a chance! HALF A CHANCE! And I'll -"

In his throws of begging for "half a chance" Ueda didn't even get half a _warning_ before a silver bullet, flying through the air faster than Mach-3, slammed into the back of his right knee in an explosion of blood and fire.

Ueda tried to scream but all that came out was a gargled cough as, for the second time that day, another of his limps was removed at the joint. His calf and foot went flying off into the brush along the side of the road, disappearing into the underbrush and falling out of sight.

The distant crack of the gun met his ears moments later.

He fell fast and landed hard, his head bouncing off the ground and his hand moving down to the _new_ bleeding stump in an attempt to stop the blood-flow. His brain was reeling, his vision was blurred, and his skin was growing unnaturally pail, all mostly due to the blood loss.

The forest was oddly silent in lieu of the loud crack of the gun, the only sound being the gargles of Ueda as he tried to overcome the shock of loosing yet another limb in the same painful manner which had taken his arm.

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

"_Damn_." Tenmakei thought with a small grunt, "_Pulled it a little._"

He was about to fire off another shot – "_No sense in leaving the the poor prick like this, right?_" – when a slight movement in the tree behind Ueda caught Tenmakei's eye. With curiosity winning out of caution, he decided to watch … at least for the moment.

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

"Kukukukukukuku…" A cold chuckle echoed from the trees above Ueda's head.

Even in the delirium brought on by the shock and blood loss, the ex-leader of the Parasites could never forget _that_ laugh … or the man to whom it belonged.

"Y-y-you!" Ueda stammered, turning his head upwards to face the treetops. Near the base of the lowest branch on the tree directly behind him, Ueda caught sight of _him_. His appearance was different than it had been the last time the two of them had met. It had been almost two months since then, back when the man before him had had short green hair and covered his body in bandages. But the eyes, as they say, are the window to the soul.

And if this man's eyes said anything at all, it was that no soul lied behind those yellow slits.

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

"_Orochimaru_." Tenmakei thought with a small growl as the upper torso of the man twisted itself out of the large tree behind Ueda. "_What are you doing here you dirty little snake?_"

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

"I didn't expect much from you, Koichi-kun." Orochimaru hissed, an amused smirk slithering across his pail face, "When I hired you and your little entourage to conduct some raids against the Leaf, I figured that you'd probably get yourself killed somehow, but _this_ … tsk, tsk, tsk … _this_ is just sad."

"D-damn you." Ueda growled.

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

The Casull's sights realigned themselves on the side of Orochimaru's head.

Tenmakei wasn't about to take any chances with this guy. The two of them had fought before, it had been a while since then, but that pale kid had left an impression on the Monster King … no two ways about it, the rogue Sannin was a dangerous man.

He took final aim.

"_A dangerous man, no doubt about it_." Tenmakei thought.

He began to squeeze the trigger.

"_Dangerous … yet intriguing._"

His grip on the trigger relaxed.

"_And perhaps a bit too much fun to cut from the world in such an … __**undignified**__ manner._"

He lowered the gun to his side, a small smirk on his lips, but kept his eye on the situation.

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

"'_Damn you'_, you say?" Orochimaru chuckled in a mocking tone. "My dear boy, you should be _thanking_ me, not _damning_ me."

"W-what are you talking about?" Ueda growled, "You sent me on a suicide mission! Why the _hell_ should I be _thanking_ you!"

"Au contraire, child, au contraire!" Orochimaru chuckled on, wagging his finger from side to side, "I gave you a chance to strike it rich at the expense of Konoha. But, then again, you failed, didn't you?"

"It's all because of that … that _freak_!" Ueda shouted, what little blood remaining in his veins was on the verge of boiling, "_I_ didn't mess up anything, it was that _freak_ who killed my men!"

"You got too cocky, too headstrong, for your own good." Orochimaru said, his own cocky grin never leaving his face, "In the end _that's_ what got your men killed and _that's_ what cost you an arm and a leg … so to speak."

"Go to hell." Ueda growled.

"But you really should be thanking me." Orochimaru said, a slightly more serious look coming over him, "I'm here to give you a second chance, otherwise I wouldn't even have bothered coming down here to see you. After all, I do have a new apprentice in need of training."

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

Tenmakei's eyes narrowed.

"_This could get bad._" He mused, "_If I don't kill one of them now, they'll come back to bite me in the ass later. I really should kill them._"

However, instead of retaking his aim, Tenmakei merely chuckled.

"_But what's the fun in that?_"

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

"What are you talking about?" Ueda shouted, his temper finally breaking. "Second chance? MY ASS! I just lost my right arm and leg! And you're talking about giving me another chance! BULL! JUST KILL ME IF YOU'RE GONNA KILL BE, BUT I'M THOUGH BEING JERKED AROUND!"

"Kill you?" Orochimaru chuckled, his amused smile returning, "Why would I kill you when you can still prove yourself useful?"

"NO! I-" Ueda tried to shout at the Sannin before being abruptly cut off. With an almost casual flick of his wrist Orochimaru, a small cackle echoing in his throat, sent a horde of snakes flying down to encircle the former bandit leader. Without even a chance to struggle loose, not that he would have had the strength to free himself had he been given the chance, Ueda was lifted off his feet … er, _foot_ … and vanished beneath the bark of the tree along with Orochimaru and his mass of snakes.

**X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X O X**

"_He'll be back_." Tenmakei thought to himself as he stowed his gun back within his cloak. "_But only time will tell if he's just another pawn on Orochimaru's chess-board, or if he'll actually prove himself worthy of my time._"

**END CHAPTER**

**Sorry to end it so suddenly, but I just got hit by some serious writer's block, so … yeah. Well then, if ya got any questions, feel free to ask and … ugh … I guess I'll see you all next time!**


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